Breaking down her walls
by Lunarburst23
Summary: AU! Nightsong is a young femme left behind during Cybertron's fall. Growing up in a dying world has caused her to slowly close her spark off to others as a defense. What is she to do when she meets two mechs from her past and a silver sabortuer that does not ignite every self preservation instinct iin her?
1. Chapter 1

Ok so this is my new Jazz/OC Story! Not going to go into much detail cause I don't want to give too much away! I hope that I can write Jazz ok seeing as how I have written him before but it was just small parts. Anyways on with the story! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS OR ITS CHARACTERS! I ONLY OWN THE PLOT AND OC! If you have any trouble understanding Jazz's accent please message me and I will explain it to you!

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><p>As I stood there on a hill overlooking where I knew the well of Sparks to be, my thoughts wandered to the past as they always did. I clearly remember two mechs that were always there for me when I needed them... but that time has long since passed.<p>

I've been alone for thousands of years, surviving in a dying world. A world where the inhabitants have fallen into a hopeless desolation. There was no future. There was no hope. For bots like me we could only exist just to exist. We kill to survive. That it the only way for us... for me.

There is no happiness or hope. I cannot remember the last time I felt the warm stirrings of contentment or joy. Only the bittersweet feeling of existing keeps me company now. I live just to say that I am alive, just as I kill just to live. I only do what I must to survive. That is the way that it always has been... ever since I was left alone.

Sometimes I find myself wondering where they have gone to. Do they ever think of me? What happened to them? But the more I think of it, the more it pains my already pained spark. Why hope for what can never return to me? They are probably dead. And all I can do is live. Dying is not an option...

Not until I find something worth dying for.

A strange gleam catches my attention, causing me to shift my pale icy blue optics down to where the light of the moon reflects off of my dark purple paint, illuminating the silver accents. My door wings twitch out of habit more than anything, and I subconsciously twitch my butterfly like antennas. The bulbs at the end light up a dull depressed gray, but that doesn't phase me. It never has. How could it? I haven't known anything but this pained monotony in so long that I do not remember the last time my antennas lit up any color other than this dull dreary gray... or a bright enraged red.

I think the last time was when I was playing with them... back before my world came crashing down around me. Literally. They had gone out and left me with the caretakers trusting that I would be safe. But nobot was ever safe on this planet.

It was that day that to them I died. Only I didn't die. I managed to crawl my way out of the rubble and bodies, only to wish that I had not. There was nothing left and they were gone. They never came back for me.

I clenched my servo into a fist and forced the memories away entirely. There was no use thinking about them! They were never coming back! I was alone! My spark was empty and pained with no bonds to sustain it! No matter how hard I used to try I could never feel them! So I blocked the dead bond completely to save my processor from self destruction.

I would be alone. I could handle that. It's all that I have ever known. And besides... I had a job to do. No use letting myself get distracted now.

With a sigh I let myself fall into a low crouch while I waited for my target to appear. Some nobot rogue that had slagged off one too many bots. Why he was coming here, I had no idea nor did I care. All that mattered was that I made enough credits to pay off those damn debt collectors.

Time to get down to business! And I was the best at what I do!

Allowing my processor to shift into business mode, I fluttered my wings about me seeing if I could pick up any electrical impulses on the stagnant wind. My antennae straightened outward further increasing my ability to sense EM fields at greater distances.

Now all I had to do was wait for any hapless bot to wander by. Hopefully one of them would be my target.

Groons must have went by while I sat there waiting with nothing happening. I knew that my target would come this way, I had stalked him long enough to figure out his schedule. He always came to the Well of Sparks for some reason, probably to pay respect to a deceased friend or something. That was why I knew he would be here.

What I did not expect was for three EM fields to suddenly enter my own energy field. I shifted to get a better look at the entrance to the Well but I could only make out three figures, two were very tall but obscurred from my view for the most part, and another was only a little larger than I was. What stood out about the third figure was the bright silver coloring I could clearly see.

"Huh... well as long as they don't get in my way they can be here. Not like they'll see me strike and I'll be long gone before they even realize I was here." If my fragging target showed his face plates anytime soon.

I watched the three figures set up post outside the entrance of the Well of Sparks. This irritated me. How the frag was I supposed to do this without witnesses if they were standing there waiting like that? Better question what were they waiting for?

Hopefully they weren't after the same bot that I was, because if it came down to it I would not allow them to kill him. He was my target and I was given half of the credits in advance to offline him. So if I failed, it would reflect quite badly on me, and that, I could not allow. I was Nightsong, the great and feared Mercenary.

No I would definitely reveal myself to slay my target. If it got nasty I could always use my antennae to scatter their processors momentarily with my electro pulse disruptor. Yeah that would work. Poor slaggers would be so out of it that they would not even remember seeing me.

Now all I had to do was keep waiting. I always did like a good challenge.

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><p>(Jazz's POV)<p>

The twins stood silently behind med waiting as patiently as they could for this bot to show his faceplates. I could still clearly see the way that they shifted in agitation, but hey I'm nothing if not observant! I have known the twins for a long time now... roughly five millenia or so. Well, enough to know when they were about ta throw a glitch fit from boredom!

I grinned and shifted on my peds languidly... since I knew that that would irritate them! Me being all calm and cool while they were about to lose it ta their more unstable side. Sometimes I wondered what all was bothering them cause it seemed like more then they let on. But I never questioned them about it cause I knew that it would be pointless. The Terror Twins never opened up to anybot. Not ever!

"Jazz if you don't cut that out..." Sunstreaker's voice drifted over to meh menacingly.

"Cut wha' out? Standin'? Can't 'elp ya de'e Streaker! Da Prime said ta stan' 'ere an' wait for dis bot ta show up! Can't do dat sittin' down, now can ah?" I grinned when a dangerous growl sounded from the volatile gold mech not even a nanoklik later. I knew that would piss him off! "Ay Sides! Why don'cha take care of ya bro'her? 'E's bout ta lose it!"

There was a barely audible sigh from Sideswipe. "Cut it out Sunny."

"Don't call me that!" Sunstreaker snapped at him. "And I can't help it if standing here waiting for some bot to show up bores me! What if he doesn't even come here? How do we know?"

"Hound's been tailin' 'im for a while now." I told him seriously. "If Hound says 'e's gonna be 'ere den 'e'll be 'ere. Jus' relax Streaker."

Thankfully... or not Sunstreaker went silent after that. Which was good cause I was getting a strange feeling in my chassis... like somebot was watching us. I couldn't see anybot around... and there were no detectable EM fields besides the twins... but... something was off. Whatever it was, had me subconsciously readying my weapons just in case of an ambush. Just cause the cons were gone didn't mean that there was no danger around. Coming back to Cybertron had definitely been an optic opener.

The bots here were dangerous and unpredictable. Living like nomads had been hard on them, and because of that they were often frighteningly well skilled. Probably cause they all had to fight constantly to survive while the Autobots and Decepticons were too busy trying to rip each others throats out all over a misunderstanding between brothers. So, it was no surprise that most of the neutrals weren't very fond of them now that they had returned.

It was this knowledge that had me tightening my stance in case of an attack. And the twins definitely took notice of it.

Sideswipe stepped up beside me and looked around discretely. "Jazz? What's up?"

"Ah don' know mech. Ah jus' got da feelin' dat somebot's watchin' meh."

Sunstreaker came up on my other side and surveyed the landscape with a scowl. "Whoever it is must be a coward to just sit there and watch. Probably too scared to make a move."

"Maybay." Though I doubted it. Anybot that could hide themselves that well, was not to be trifled with. Even now, I was only going off of instincts... I had not actually sensed somebot out there watching. Call it a spybots intuition.

Unfortunately as soon as my attention wandered to our secret viewer our real target rounded the bend separating the Well of Sparks from da surrounding area. My attention snapped to him instantly, our visitor would have to wait until afterwards.

Apparently this bot, a large orange colored mech, was a wanted criminal on Cybertron wanted for rape, murder, and all kinds of other heinous acts. Prime wanted him stopped so, he sent me and the twins to take care of it. Why this bot was hanging around the Well was another matter for discussion entirely.

Both twins straightened up at the same time that I did, facing our new arrival with a sort of sadistic glee in their optics. The prospect of spilling energon always got em riled up nice and good!

As soon as the slagpile noticed us standing right in his path, he slowed to a stop. Hiss dark red optics surveyed all of us with trepidation, armor locking down against his protoform to better protect himself.

"Ah don' suppose dat you woul' happen ta be Plasmarage? Wanted murder n' rapist..." I trailed off while watching him. I could see him readying his weapons for a fight so it must be him. Even if I already knew who he was from his picture.

"Who wants to know? The stupid Prime's enforcers? Autobot scums?" The large orange mech taunted. "What gives you the right to come back here and act like you rule this planet after abandoning all of us?"

Something about the way he was looking around warily, like we weren't the only threats he was worried about bothered me. Was he aware of our little watcher too? Then we better get this over with quick so that we can find out who our guest is.

Ah was just engaging my blasters for a fight when a bright gleam caught my optic from the side. Something shot out from the rocky clifface like a plasma bullet, and before I could even react, it found purchase in our target's throat cables.

Red optics widened in complete surprise as Plasmarage gave a sickening gurgle and coughed up unprocessed energon. His knees gave out sending him toppling to the ground below... dead before he even hit it.

A long knife like projectile was sticking out of the back of his throat, the blade was straight and narrow and the hilt was straight with a circle cut into the end. A weapon made for precision... definitely.

A flash of movement from the side caught my attention just in time to see a lithe figure throw itself from the rocky outcropping. Whoever it was, was a small bot... even smaller then me! But they landed on Plasmarage's dead frame with such grace that I was momentarily mesmerized.

Not even making one noise the small figure reached out without even looking at us... and twisted the knife still lodged into the back of Plasmarage's throat causing the helm to separate from the frame with a sickening sound of cables tearing.

"Sorry Autbots..." A soft feminine voice drifted out from the dark figure. "But I can't let you kill my target after all the time I put into stalking him."

Icy blue optics glanced my way with cold calculating intent... like this femme was fully ready to have a go at them if they made even one move towards her. And something told me that I did not want to do that, because I could see the same pain that I often saw in the twins' optics. Pain that was always hid behind either a cold glare, or a charming but altogether fake grin. This femme had a mixture of both going on with her face.

Her optics were cold... but she was wearing a charming and threatening grin at the same time. Just who was she? "Who are ya?"

Witt an errant flick of her wrist the little femme subspaced Plasmarage's helm before turning to face them fully.

Before she could even speak a word in answer to my question, two sharp vents from the twins had me turning in their direction. Both of them were staring at this femme like Primus himself had just floated down from the sky and granted every wish they could possibly have. "You know 'er?"

Sunstreaker stumbled past me shoving me out of the the way a little too roughly. I could see his mouth components open and close several times as he struggled to get words out all while the little femme stared back at him like she too, had seen a ghost. "N-Nightsong?"

Nightsong? That was this femme's designation? I looked at her again much more closely... She certainly was something to look at with her dark purple and silver accented paint, a lithe build with a well filled out but not too large chassis, a nice hourglass figure leading down to full hips and long legs. She even had door wings like Prowler did, and strange butterfly like antennaes. A soft, yet structured, silver face plate revealed delicate feminine features, full lips, soft cheek arches, and almond shaped optics.

"What are you doing here, Sunstreaker? I thought that you two were offline." Nightsong bit out in a strained tone, her facial features tightening in confusion and anger.

From the corner of my optics I saw Sideswipe flinch back, looking like he wanted ta purge his tanks. I could see his guilt plain as day in his dark blue optics. "Night? Is-is that really you?"

"Yes it is."

The blunt tone had me turning back in her direction again. "Who are ya? How do da twins know ya?"

She met my optics again and gave a hard shake of her helm. "I don't have time for this." With a terse flick of her door wings she turned her back on us and leapt up onto a cliff in one bound.

"Wait Night! Come back!" Sunstreaker and Sideswipe shot by me skidding to a stop underneath this Nightsong's ledge. "Let's just talk about what happened! We thought that you died Night!"

"I said that I don't have time for this." Nightsong reiterated before leaping up onto another cliff further up.

There was no way the twins could scale that cliff as quickly as she could, not with their big frames. I watched her go... something about her calling to me. The twins looked desparate to get to her... and I hated seeing them look like that.

Whoever this femme was had to be real important to them. That made it easy for me to make up my mind. Dashing forward quickly, I used Sideswipe's shoulder as a springboard to boost myself up onto the ledge she had previously occupied. That femme could definitely jump that was for sure! "You two catch up! Ah'll go after 'er!" I called back down before I turned and jumped up onto another ledge close by. I hefted mahself up and looked for another spot to jump and I could see Nightsong watching me from her ledge further up near the top of this cliff. I offered her a grin and leapt up closing the distance as quickly as I could.

But she wasn't waiting for me to catch up cause she turned and continued on her way without another backwards glance. But I was nothing if not resourceful, so I used my claws to help myself climb more steadily, thus closing the distance between myself and the top more quickly. If I wasted too much time climbing she would give me the slip.

I could feel the jagged rocks cutting into my armor here and there, but it didn't deter me and quicker then I thought possible, I had reached the top. With a leap I vaulted over the edge and landed in a crouch optics scanning my surroundings for the troublesome femme.

Apparently she was waiting for me because my optics landed on her standing right in front of me with her arms crossed over her chassis and a scowl on those pretty face plates. "Thanks for waitin' for meh Nightsong! Ah tell ya ah, don' know how ya jus' jump up dose cliffs like dat!"

A small almost playful smile pulled at her lips... or at least it would've been if it weren't so dark. "Nobot has ever chased me up a cliff before. Why did you?"

I straightened from my crouch and took a relaxed stance across from her. Now, I wasn't stupid enough to not be ready to defend myself, but I also didn't want to make her think that I was gonna attack her either. So long as she didn't come at me, we would be good. "Well because da twins obviously know ya! And well dey can' exactly scale a cliff as fast as ah can!" A grin worked itself onto my lips... she was hard to figure out. "So why exactly were dey makin' such a fuss over ya femme? Are ya an old girlfriend or somet'in'?"

A look of disgust flashed through her optics. "No. Just no. Not that it's any of your business Autobot, but they're my older brothers."

Surprise flashed through me, but I kept my optics schooled into a look of stoicism. Would not do to let this femme get a read on me, that I could tell. Something about her just screamed dangerous and lethal... maybe it was the way that she took out that large mech with a little throwing knife? "Sister? Ah never knew dat dey had one."

"You wouldn't. I was in the youth sectors when they were bombed... to them I was probably just a memory. As they have been to me all of this time."

"So ya mean dat ya though' dey were offline, n' dey probably though' you were offline?" I shifted which caused her optics to instantly follow the movement with a predatory intensity. Something about it made my spark jump.

The grin fell of her lips as a scowl took its place. "Probably. But I don't really have time to play family reunion right now as I do have a sum of credits to collect for Plasmarage. Thanks for distracting him by the way... not that I could not have taken him without your interference."

"Dat soun's like Streaker's arrogance talkin'." I joked quietly.

"It's not arrogance if you can back it up little mech." She bit out in a menacing tone. "Now why don't you get lost before I show you just how much I can and will back my talk up?"

I grinned at her little threat... no doubt that she could back her talk up. But I had to keep her stalled long enough for the twins to make it up here. "Why ya wanna run away from 'em? Wouldn' it make ya happier ta stay wit' em?"

"No." She deadpanned. "To me they've been dead for a long time so why drag up old memories? They would never understand me now, nor could I ever understand them. It's easier this way."

"Why do ya think dat? You're siblings." I could see the aggravation working its way across her face. So she was quick to anger like Sunstreaker huh? But from the way she was grinning at me earlier, I would assume that she might have a playful streak like Sideswipe. Maybe.

"None of your business. Now get lost."

"Ah can' do it femme. Ah guess if ya want, we can fight it out a bit... if ya think ya can keep up wit' meh."

That playful smirk found its way across her lips again. "And why would I do that when I can just do this?"

The only warning I had that something bad was about to happen, was a small twitch of those little bulb like antennae before I was suddenly hit with an intense swell of electromagnetic energy. Strong enough to make my entire frame lock up and to make my processor start swimming. My knees hit the ground as I tried to keep myself propped up on one servo... I could see her watchin me with a small playful smile.

"I'm surprised that you can even hold yourself up mech!" She giggled.

Struggling to stay propped up I offered her a small grin of my own. "Ahm built tougha den mos' bots, femme. An' da designation is Jazz."

Just then the sound of large bodies throwing themselves over the cliff behind me could be heard along with shouts from both twins.

"Took ya long enough!" I joked with them as Sideswipe crouched beside me and checked me over. "Ah'm fine. Your sister dere has some sorta electro pulse manipulator... ah can' move."

"Night, let Jazz go! What's wrong with you?" Sideswipe admonished her.

"He wouldn't leave me alone when I told him to." She shrugged but she didn't release me from her hold.

"What is wrong with you?" Sunstreaker asked her again. "Why are you acting like this?"

"You're in my way." She said bluntly. "Like I said earlier, I don't have time to play." She reached into her subspace and retrieved a small circle object that she held out in front of herself. "Now get lost." Swinging her arm down she tossed the object at them.

It hit the ground right in front of Sunstreaker and exploded sending a thick black cloud of smoke wafting out over us. I couldn't see through it if I tried and I knew that the twins couldn't either. But I could hear still and I clearly heard the sound of shifting metal and an engine starting up before gunning off somewhere. But what really bothered me was the way that both twins shouted for their sister in pain. How could she just not care?

How was it possible to forsake a bond so completely? Obviously the twins had not forgotten about her, that much, I could tell.

But as the smoke died down revealing the spot she had been standing in completely empty... I knew none of us would have answers this cycle.

Nightsong had gotten away.

The twins looked sparkbroken.

And I knew that until they saw her again, they always would look like that. Something told me that it wasn't the last time we would see her though, and it was that thought that made it easier to get up from where I was still crouched on the ground. We had to get back to New Iacon, Nightsong would come around... I was sure of it. "Come on mechs... we need ta get back."

Both of them gave me angry and defeated looks... but otherwise did as I told them. They couldn't go after her and they knew it so why try?

"Come on den. We'll probably run inta 'er again sometime. Ah'm sure of it."

Neither one of them responded to me. Not that I expected them to.

We all started back for New Iacon in silence. But my processor was still locked on a dark purple femme with silver accents and a wicked personality. She had definitely caught my interest.

I couldn't wait to figure her out.

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><p>R&amp;R! What do you all think?<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to Silent Shooter for betaing this story! How'd you all like the first chapter? I hope it was decent cause I was nervous about writing Jazz! Anyways on with the story! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS OR IT'S CHARACTERS! Ok so I'm going to go ahead and throw another update out right now! Starting from this Friday I will update every week! Please R&R!

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><p>I plopped Plasmarage's helm down on the filthy table in front of a good sized black mech with red optics. Those red pools followed the helm's movement as it rolled slightly, dead optics staring straight ahead in what was clearly surprise and pain. I grinned and plopped down across from my client in a small chair. "Satisfied Ramshock?"<p>

"Quite." Was all he said in response as he poked at the remains of the dead mech with a wicked sense of curiosity.

"Normally you don't send me after one of your mechs Ram." I started playfully as I hitched my peds up onto the tabletop. Ramshock's optic followed the movement closely, intensely, staying locked on the apex of my thighs. Disgust wanted to eat away at me, but I kept my features playful and unassuming. It would not do to let one of my clients see that I was disgusted by him... and besides Ram always paid well. Especially for his less glamorous and more high risk work. "What did he do? Well besides going overboard with the murdering and stuff. You can't turn a profit if your dealer keeps killing the clients huh?"

"Exactly. This slagging idiot is bad for business! In the last deca-orn he raped and killed over a dozen clients! How can I support my family unit if he keeps cutting my profits?" Large black digits wrapped around Plasmarage's helm and squeezed it until a sickening squeal of metal being crushed permeated the room.

Again I was filled with disgust even if I did not let it show. I was a mercenary that was true, but I never killed innocents for a profit, nor did I ever use drugs. Mechs like Ramshock did all of those things, dealing drugs, selling frames through pleasurebots, performing murder contracts... Well I did murder for credits as well but never innocent bots. I preferred to challenge myself with bots that could fight back. Honestly it probably had something to do with the way I grew up with my brothers...

My processor drifted to them, their faces looking at me with shock and surprise... I had thought that they had died... that they had not come looking for me because they were dead. But I was wrong. They had been alive and well all of this time and... they had never come looking for me. Why? Why did that both warm and hurt my spark like nothing I had ever felt before? They didn't come for me... but they were alive.

And yet I had just walked away in anger while they called out to me. They would not understand me and what I've become. They would not approve of the things that I had done to survive... well not so much the killing, but the other things... But I did not want to think about it right now. No there were other things to focus on. Like my pay. I wanted to get away from Ramshock as soon as possible.

"So where are my credits Ram?" I asked in my perfectly fake voice. All I needed was those damn credits and I could stash them in my subspace and look for another contract. All work and no play for me, at least not now when my collector was coming soon. Well more like he was my brothers debt collector and I was left to pay off their debt from the Gladiator pits. "I have some other business to attend to so I do need to get going."

Red optics lifted to my face as he reached into a drawer and tossed me a small ship containing; the rest of my pay. "I do happen to have another... task that you could help me with, Nightsong." He grinned at me and I knew exactly what he was talking about.

My armor tightened and locked down over important joints and relays as I balked back mentally in disgust.

"Oh come now, Nightsong, we both know that you have done these types of favors before. And I will pay you well for your time." He tossed another chip at me and leaned back to watch me with a predatory smirk.

For a moment I just stood there staring at the chip... I did need the credits... But I did not want to resort to this again if it could be avoided... Either way, I reached out and took hold of the small chip so that I could pop it into my helm to check how many credits were on it. When the number one thousand flashed across my HUD, I sighed in defeat... there was no way that I could turn down that amount of credits... even to avoid this unpleasant experience. It was nothing I had not done before...

The chip popped back out of my helm... and I held it gingerly in my servo while Ram watched me... He knew that I would take it, he knew of my situation and thus, he knew how to bait me. That was why he did not look the least bit surprised when I slipped the chip into my subspace.

"Shall we?" He stood up and offered me a large servo.

I hesitated briefly... but I had to do this. So, I took it, even when just touching it made me sick, and I let him lead me into the back room, the door shutting after me with a loud clicking sound... It made my spark tighten, but I forced it away and removed my armor... laying down prostate on the berth.

Another set of armor hit the floor... and then, he was there leaning over me. And all I wanted to do was close my optics and be anywhere but here, but, I could not escape... I never could.

I only wished that for these moments I could not feel or comprehend what was happening. That would make it so much easier.

But, life was anything but easy. At least for me. And as soon as that first touch brushed across my frame... I had to hold back the purge that desperately wanted to be expelled from my tanks. I kept my facial expression calm and collected, belying nothing. It was the only way to get through this with my sanity intact.

If that was even possible at this point.

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><p>Two groons later, I exited Ramshock's office feeling like I wanted to purge. He was so disgusting and his touch made my armor crawl. But, I was a thousand credits richer, so that was an upside to being his pleasurebot for a few groons.<p>

I exited the back and walked through the main bar pushing my way past bots that were meandering about. Everybot was either drunk or high, or both even, but I was used to it by now. These places were frequents for me, the darker side of normal everyday life for other bots. From the corner, of my optic I saw two mechs making a drug deal just opposite of where I saw a mech being fragged by two pleasurebots.

It was normal in these places, so I looked the other way like I always did. Besides, I had other things to think about right now, like my next contract. I quickly did a mental count of all the credits I had to make sure of how much more I needed. I had roughly thirteen thousand, so I needed another two thousand to make the payment. And another who knows how much more to pay it all off.

Life was a real glitch. I stalked out onto the streets of Polithex and wandered down the dark, barely lit streets in search of another client. Usually, they frequented the bars or the brothels, so I knew where to look, but sometimes, I could even find them wandering the druggy infested streets. Honestly, I did not see why a bot would pay another bot that was high on high grade and who knew what other kind of drugs. Usually they got themselves killed and did not even slay their target or do whatever job the client wanted. Then again, if they did manage it and get killed in the process then the client didn't have to pay them. Still, the cons far outweighed the pros of that situation because they usually died before getting the job done.

Sure, I charged a fair bit of credits for my services, but I always got the job done. I wasn't known as a ruthless and cunning merc for nothing, after all.

I rounded another corner and stepped into a nightclub where another of my clientale frequented, but my thoughts were running. I could not stop thinking about my brothers and that Jazz or whatever-his-designation-was. The first time I had seen my family unit in how many millenia, and I got angry. Inside I was relieved and happy even, but, truthfully, I did not know how to react to feeling that way. And when I thought about it, had they even looked for me after the bombing? Or did they just decided I was dead and leave my memory behind? And why did it bother me so much?

Their faces... their old faces flashed across my processor again. Smiling down at me while we played with my toys when I was still a sparkling, back before our creators had died. They were always there looking after me and protecting me from bad bots, and look at where I was now. Roaming a dirty, druggy infested, city looking for credits to pay back our debts. No more playing, no more soft hugs, and no more security.

I remembered it... that day when everything changed. Several large mechs had broken into our housing unit and killed our creators while my brothers desperately shielded me from the energon being spilled, my tiny sparkling frame curled protectively between them. But I had still seen my creators... our creators being mutilated. Those images had stayed with me forever, scarring me permanently.

After that, we were taken and sold into the slave trade. From there we had all ended up in the pits... or they had ended up there, while our buyers had wanted to turn me into a shareware. My brothers had pleaded with our buyer not to do that to me, they had said that when I was older they would train me to fight in the pits as well. When I think about it now... both choices were horrible. But our buyer had agreed and I had been saved temporarily from being a shareware.

Life was still hard though, because from that day on, I had to watch my brothers come back from fighting torn up and leaking all over... sometimes missing limbs, other times falling into stasis from trauma. I used to cuddle up to them on the dirty floors in the pits cells and soothe them with our sparkbond... it was all that we could do. And I knew that they always appreciated it because I was greeted with warm, and sometimes, still slightly, pained smiles every morning cycle.

But innocence never lasts, and soon they had to start teaching me how to fight. I was barely even a youngling when the pit boss had insisted that I had lived free from burden for long enough. I can still remember the way that Sides had grabbed me and huddled me against his chassis as terror swelled in his spark, Sunny had shielded me from the master's sight and growled out that I was not ready yet.

But he had not been willing to relent, and from that day on, I had been forced to train with my brothers. It had been hard because I was so small and not built for power, but they had been as patient as possible with me. Sides had said that I had to use my speed to my advantage to build up momentum with my attacks, and Sunny had willingly been my practice dummy while Sides instructed me. I remember the first time that I had hit Sunny and I felt the slight pain that he had felt through our sparkbond. I had started crying because I did not want to inflict that pain onto my brother, or anybot, for that matter.

That was the first time that Sunny had ever told me that I had to get over it, that I had to keep hurting him. Even if I knew that it didn't really hurt that bad, my youngling processor just could not comprehend it. Hurt him just to hurt him? But I had done it anyways, I had reared back and struck him again despite the pain that it caused me. That biting emotional pain that would never die down.

That was just life for our sad, lonely, little family. They could sit there, and sometimes we would pretend that we weren't in the pits, sometimes we pretended that we were at home and danni and opi were going to come back at any second... Surprisingly, that only caused more pain in the long run. Believing in falcities normally did that.

And besides, real life never waited for anybot. It certainly hadn't waited for me. One day, I was practicing in our cell with my brothers, and the next I was being dragged up above for the first time while they desperately shouted my designation. Their fear nearly destroyed me on the spot, but I held strong as best I could even when I was terrified to the point that my armor was rattling pitifully on my frame. A sword had been shoved into my small servos before I was being shoved out the arena gates into an energon covered arena where a large mech stood waiting for me.

'Til this day I don't know how I survived it. All I can remember was being torn into over and over again because I was too weak and small to actually break through the mech's armor, and I can remember my brothers outrage clearly through the bond as they watched what was happening. They had been trying to instruct me, but nothing worked, I just did not have the sheer size and power that they did. So, I had improvised in the end and gone for the optics. It was dirty and underhanded but I had no choice, nor did I hesitate to stab my small sword into both optics blinding him.

After that, I could not clearly recall what had happened. I do remember stabbing him over and over again, but when I came to again, I was propped up on his neck with my sword buried in his throat cables. He was laying dead beneath my tiny frame and I was slowly leaking to death myself.

Servos had roughly grabbed me after that and dragged my half dead self down to my cell before tossing me in. I hadn't even realized that I was missing an arm or that my armor was shredded, I only did take notice when my brothers started fussing over the wounds.

And, in that moment, while I laid there half dead, my world started cracking. I was helpless to stop it. To this day, I was still helpless to do anything about it, but then again, my world was not cracked.

It was already shattered.

So, why reflect on what it was like before my world shatted in a spray of energon and rubble piling down on top of me? Why did I do this to myself now? That was all long in the past, and I was but a shell of the femme they knew. Honestly, there were things that even then I had kept from them to protect them. Things that I would take to the Well of Sparks with me without ever telling a soul.

I gave my helm a hard shake, realizing with a start that I had been standing just inside the club for roughly a groon reminiscing. Snorting to myself, I wandered further back in, optics in search of a familiar green colored mech.

It wasn't too much trouble finding him since he was always sitting in the back with a half dozen or so pleasurebots surrounding him. So, I made myself at home and plopped down across from him, not that he could see since he had a sluttier looking femme on his lap at the moment. I could guess what exactly they were doing and I could comment on it all day if I wanted, but whatever. "Hey Shot."

A somewhat bulky green helm peeked over the femme's shoulder at me grinning around a more wanton expression. "Hey Night! In need of some work?" He panted out. Disgusting.

"Yup. Got anything for me?"

"You bet I do! I got a shipment that was confiscated by those stupid Autoscums. It's got some pretty valuable paraphenelia in it, if you know what I mean?"

Drugs. Yeah I knew what he meant. "Ok, so you want me to retrieve it. How big are we talking here?" I leaned back and kicked my peds into the table in a lax posture. Honestly, Shot didn't put me off nearly as much as Ramshock did, so I was almost at ease. Almost.

"Not too big, Night. Honestly, a small carrying trailer would be enough to bring it back. I'm more worried about the guards protecting it. Last I heard, it was taken to Uraya until a larger group of guards could be summoned to escort it to New Iacon."

I turned the words over in my helm a few times weighing the options and the pros and cons. My brothers were part of the Autobots, and thus, it was feasible that they could be summoned to escort the shipment. That, or that little mech Jazz could be there, but I wasn't worried about him if it came down to it. But a shipment of the size Shot was indicating would not take long to transport from Uraya to New Iacon. So, there wasn't much time to decide. Luckily, Shot could persuade me if the pay was good enough. "How much are you offering?"

Shot grinned at me and reached around his slut to pull a chip from his subspace. "How does two thousand five hundred sound?" He held the chip up and handed it to me to check the amount.

I did so and counted to make sure that he was not pulling my leg. "All here and accounted for Shot." And I could not turn it away since it would take me over my minimum payment. Well frag, he had himself a deal. There was only one little problem though. "I don't have a hitch, and I'm not exactly built for heavy hauls Shot. You got somebot that can tag along to bring the shipment back?"

"Sure. Wrecker, will tag along with you and bring the shipment back. Just make sure to stay with him in case he tries to bolt and turn a big profit on his own, ya know what I mean?"

"Sure." I handed the chip back to him and stood. "Well, I'll be back in a few cycles with your stuff Shot."

"Be safe, Night."

I knew I was dismissed when he started going at his pleasurebot again with vigor, so I turned and walked back to the entrance of the Club. Always paid to be prepared and I needed to stock up on ammo and smoke bombs, among other things. Shot sent me the coordinates of where to meet Wrecker in roughly a joor so I knew that I had plenty of time.

Good, 'cause I needed to get my helm in the game where it belonged and not on my brothers. If I met them out there I needed to be calm and focused, I wasn't gonna hurt them or anything, but I would accomplish my task no matter what.

Two thousand five hundred credits, here I come!

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><p>(Jazz's POV)<p>

The twins were silent throughout the whole trip back to New Iacon, and even through the debriefing. Prime seemed intrigued by this, if not a little worried, but he knew that the twins wouldn't tell him even if something was bothering them. I even knew that, but I did know what was bothering them as well.

That little femme had popped up in my helm more then once since we came back from our mission. The way she had walked away without even looking back, without even responding to the way the twins were yelling for her. Something about it bothered me.

"Jazz? Are you listening?" Prime voice interrupted my internal musing.

"Uhh, sorry boss bot. Didja say somt'in'?" From the corner of my optics I saw Prowler give me a stern look which I gave him a grin that I knew would slag him off in response. Just as I thought it would, it got him to scowl in my direction. Ehh, he was my best bud anyways.

Prime shook his helm at me slowly with a small grin. "Yes I did Jazz. Apparently our scouts recovered a shipment of illegal drugs last cycle. They have it stationed in Uraya, but I want it brought back to New Iacon as soon as possible. I do not want the dealers recovering it. We have enough clean up to deal with without Cybertron's bots running around high."

"So ya want meh ta go an' get it?" I asked to clarify it.

"You and the twins are to take 'Bee and recover it. Bring it back to New Iacon, and for the love of Primus, do not get shot. Ratchet already informed me that if another one of you comes into his medbay with any sort of injury he is going to reformat you all into toasters."

I grinned widely. That was the Hatchet for you. "Aye aye Prime! When ya want us ta go?"

"At first light. Take the night to recharge and refuel, then I want you to head out to Uraya first thing next cycle."

"Roger dat! Is dat all?"

"Yes it is. You may go now, I will inform 'Bee that he is to accompany you."

I turned and walked out after the twins who had walked out ahead of me. Their shoulders were slumped and I could tell that they were troubled, but I knew that if I tried to talk to them about it, they wouldn't say anything. Still, I wanted to try, if only to find out more about that femme. Worst case scenario, 'Streaker would try to take a swipe at me, but would miss like he always did.

Besides, they were heading to the rec room anyways, from what I could tell, and hopefully there would be some other bots there to take the heat off in case 'Streaker decided to have a go at me.

I followed them into the rec room, which was not overly crowded. Hound sat in one corner with Mirage, and Inferno sat with Drift and Red Alert in another corner. I was pretty sure that Inferno and Hound would help me out if something went down, so I followed the twins over to a table and plopped down across from them.

As I expected, 'Streaker scowled at me, but otherwise did not comment. Sideswipe looked a little more relaxed, but I knew that he was not that much more so.

For a kilk, I just stared at them in silence... "So wassup wit' ya sista?"

Both of them puffed themselves up, 'Streaker glaring at me, and Sides frowning almost despondently. "What does it matter to you Jazz? Why do you want to know?" 'Streaker bit out.

"Ah'm jus' curious. She seemed a li'l... well she seemed as crazy as ya two." I grinned when both of them took to scowling at me. "Ah mean' it in a good way mechs. She's pretty too. Kinda funny seein' as how she's related ta you two ugly things."

I was hoping that at least 'Streaker would rise to the bait and get angry, but to my slight surprise, he just sat there glaring at me less intensely. He didn't answer me, not that I expected him too so much as I expected Siders to. At least he did what I thought he would.

"She... we don't know what's up with her." Sides' shoulders slumped down almost in defeat. "Last time we saw her she was in the youth sectors before they were bombed. We wanted her to stay there and away from the fighting for a while if it was possible, but... then we heard that they were bombed."

Both twins glanced at each other with identical frowns looking so similar that I had to wonder if it would be possible to tell them apart if they were the same color. Well, I would be able to cause it was my job to notice the differences in things.

"We raced back to check and see if she was alive, but Prime told us that only 'Bee had survived." Sides continued quietly. "Our bond had gone silent, so we assumed that she was gone. Thinking about it now, she was probably just in too much shock and pain to respond. And after that, we just closed it off to protect ourselves from the pain. We were close with her, too, Sunny and I, she was our most important possession. And we failed her."

I felt sorry for them, really I did. "But she's alive now, an' ya kno' dat. So, what are ya sittin' dere feelin' sorry fo'? Dere's a chance ta make t'ings right ain't dere?"

"Did you see the way she acted around us?" 'Streaker growled at me. "She hates us, and I don't blame her! We thought she was dead, so we tried to forget about her! Who protected her while we were gone?! Nobot!" He stood and slammed his servos down on the table angrily, this drawing the attention of the other bots gathered near by.

I expected him to yell some more, maybe throw something and rage, but he didn't do any of that. Instead, he just stormed out of the room, slamming the door after himself. I knew they were both feeling guilty, but what happened wasn't their fault. What she did to survive after they left wasn't their fault either, and it did mean one good thing! She was alive. They could make things right with her if they just tried.

Of course, telling them that wouldn't do much good cause they were both too stubborn to listen to me. But, I had to say something to make them understand. Bad things happened, that was life, and sometimes we had to just roll with the punches and hope for the best. "Don' give up Sides. Don' let Sunshine give up ei'her. If we meet 'er again, tell 'er how ya feel. If she cares, she'll listen."

"Like she listened this time?" Sides muttered miserably.

I rocked back in my seat slightly. "Well, t'ink of it dis way, Sides! If it was yo' dat was livin' on dis dyin' world all dese years thinkin' dat ya only family was dead... what woul' yo' do if dey were suddenly right in front of ya face? Woul' ya be angry? Or woul' ya be relieved? Or woul' ya be both?"

"I... I don't know."

"Well, ah guess ya gotta t'ink 'bout it den, Sides. Ya gotta understand how she felt wit' bein alone all dis time. If ya don', yo'll neva get through ta 'er."

Sides' dark blue optics met my own light blue as I offered him another grin. He cracked a small smile that was still strained, but hey! He was trying and I had to give him credit for that.

"Thanks Jazz." He stood and looked to the door where 'Streaker had run off through a few kliks ago. "I need to go and make sure that Sunny's ok. See you in the morning?"

"Yeah, ah'll be dere Siders. Take care of ya crazy twin, eh?"

"I will, Jazz. See ya."

Sides' red form stalked away from me before disappearing through the doorway. For a klik, I just sat there relaxing and thinking about that femme again. I couldn't help it, no matter how hard I tried. Until I figured her out, I would keep thinking about her, I was sure of it.

But, I did have a mission to get ready for, so I only sat there for a few kliks before I got up and filled myself a cube of energon to take back to my room.

Hopefully, tomorrow's mission wasn't that stressful cause I had a feeling that the twins were poised to blow, and I did not want to be the one to clean up after them.

Then again... maybe some of my own frustrations would be soothed by watching them kill something? Maybe.

Only time would be able to tell.

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><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

I'm having a lot of fun with this story so far! There aren't a lot of Jazz romance stories featuring OC's that I can find so I hope that you guys all like this one! Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! I ONLY OWN THE PLOT AND OCS! Ok so I am going to go through and fix Jazz's thoughts in the chapters I have typed and for future chapters so that they are not in accent! Hopefully this makes it easier for you all to understand it!

* * *

><p>I glanced at the large grey mech behind me, catching the way his dark purple optics seemed to brighten, but not in a good way. Something told me that he was going to cause me more trouble than he was worth, and I contemplated killing him before that happened. But, I knew that my small alt mode did not have a hitch, and I would have a much more difficult time dragging the shipment back on my own.<p>

That put me in a bit of a situation here. I needed this fool's help, but I knew he was planning against me. So therein lay the problem; how to get him to cooperate with me? I could always kill him for giving me a tough time later, if only to make myself feel better. Then again, he is Shot's mech, so that probably is not a good idea. I would just have to keep an optic on him in case he pulled something.

We had made good time in getting to Uraya, and now we were just waiting for the shipment to leave. Unfortunately for me, waiting was something that I did not do well. My processor always wondered when I wasn't doing something, and now, I had something really troublesome to think on. Those two...

I wish that I could just push their faces out of my processor! It was enough for me to see that they were alive! Sure, it hurt and it made me angry because I was almost certain that nobot, not even those two, had looked for me after the bombing.

Nobot was even around after I had managed to dig myself out from under the rubble. Not one bot had stayed around in case there were any other survivors. I would have felt bad had there been any others that had survived and needed medical attention for serious injuries, because they would have been screwed. At least I had lucked out for the most part, having only severely dented some plating and acquired some nasty burns. Other than that, I was able to walk my way out.

And the first thing that I had done was look for my brothers. Back then, I was convinced that they were hanging around looking for me, or waiting for me to find them. Surely they knew that I wouldn't die that easily? Not after everything that we had been through together in Kaon. Not after the way I had somehow managed to prevail over mechs three or four times my size!

But they hadn't been there. And I was scared and alone. For the first time in my life... I felt truly alone. My security blankets were not there to protect me or comfort me, and there were 'cons everywhere. Thinking back on it, that was probably the reason that they retreated, the sheer number of cons had been astounding.

Luckily for me, I was small and I knew how to hide, so sneaking past them, while at times was trying, I was able to get past all of them.

But why had I even tried so hard back then? For what reason did I cling to life when I thought my entire world had disappeared?

I flexed my claws and bit down on my lower lip hard. "Why not?" I muttered low so that Wrecker would not hear me. Giving a hard shake of my helm, I forced myself to snap out of my stupor. Now was not the time to be thinking on things like this when I had an assignment, one that could end very badly if I did not pay attention. As much as I hated to admit it, the Autobots had some decent fighters in their ranks... especially if they had my brothers. I had learned from the best, after all.

Sitting back, I ran similar situations over in my helm so that I could form a decent plan of action. From what I knew, a shipment of the size indicated would be guarded by no more than four bots tops, the Autobots didn't exactly have the bot power to offer up anymore at this point since their forces were stretched so thin. So four bots to deal with.

"Hey, Wrecker?"

"Yeah?" His deep gravelly voice drifted over me.

"How fast can you hitch yourself to that trailer and get outta the way?" I asked.

"My hitch is an automatic so as soon as I connect myself to the trailer it locks down. So I only need a few astroseconds."

Good. Than all I had to do was distract the guards for a few astroseconds. I could use a smoke bomb to cloud their vision, then I could slightly distort their processors with my disruptor. Thea again, hitting multiple targets was harder on me than concentrating on a single target, and the stronger the EM field, the more taxing it was on me.

I was sure that I could handle it if it came down to it. But, it was best to come up with something else just in case, something to try first. I fingered my concealed wrist blades while I thought, their deadly feel a comforting presence on my own processor. I could bomb them and get close enough to sever some important energon lines, not ones that would kill them, but one of the back struts possibly. It would paralyze them but it could be repaired. Maybe.

Then there was the fact that I had to keep an optic on Wrecker to make sure that he did not take off with Shot's shipment. Thankfully, I was nothing if not smart and had already planted a tracking device on him just in case he did try to run.

_'So the plan is... smoke bomb! Sever back struts! Have Wrecker hitch himself to the trailer! Get the pit outta there! Sounds good to me!'_

Now all we had to do was wait! And not that long either, 'cause I could already sense several more EM fields approaching, and I could also sense heavy vibrations through the air and ground. The shipment was close.

With a grin, I jumped to my pedes and sat there rocking on them for roughly five kliks while I waited. "Get ready, Wrecker. On my mark get your aft down there and hitch yourself to the trailer! Then get outta there and wait for me at the designated spot!"

"Right." He huffed.

I turned back to the landscape below just in time to see a cloud of dust come billowing over the horizon. The forms of three mechs came into view right away, two small, and one large, the fourth I assumed was pulling the shipment. If I could hit the fourth one in the T-Cog then he would be unable to transform to bi pedal mode, therefore, the threat that he presented was greatly reduced. However, it was not an easy target to hit either. In the past when I had used this method it had been on bots that were locked in recharge, making it easy for me to slip into just the right place and make my magic work.

I sighed, it would still make it a lot easier for me if I could do that. My optics stayed locked on the group as they came closer to us, straying first to the small yellow and black door winger. And then they travelled over to him.

I grinned to myself gleefully. So Jazz or whatever-his-designation-was, was here. Great. The smile on my face fell when I took in the next mech; Sideswipe. And I quickly looked to the car that was pulling the trailer easily depicting its' gold color. Huh? I didn't even know that Sunny had a hitch. But this changed things immensely.

No matter how angry I was at them, I never wanted to actually hurt my brothers. That meant that I would have to scramble their processors instead, while somewhat painful, it was not overly so, nor did it leave any lasting effects if only used briefly. So, I would hit them with it... but then again I also had to get Sunny off the hitch! Then, I had to disable him and Sides via pulse disruptor before going after the other two mechs. The little door winger who was a bit bigger than Jazz would be easy enough, I knew his kind well. All soft and gentle and unwilling to hit a femme that hadn't harmed him, so I would harm him faster than he could react. That sounded good! I could close quarters stun bomb him, then, sever his back strut.

That would leave me to deal with Jazz. Something told me that he would not be nearly as easy to deal with as yellow over there. It would be hard but I could zap him as well momentarily stunning him. That should give Wrecker enough time to get himself hitched to the trailer and move outta the way. Then, I had to go and track him down afterwards.

"Stay here 'til I call for you."

"Gotcha." I didn't need to look at him to feel the way he was grinning at my exposed back. Creep. Now to draw some attention and play a couple mechs for fools.

Giving a powerful leap, I vaulted over the outcropping we were seated on to quickly traverse down the small jagged cliff with several more strong leaps. I heard an unfamiliar voice shout something, sounded young to me, but I paid no attention as I landed with a small thud in front of the little convoy.

The sound of transforming assaulted my audios making me want to grin. Step: get Sunny to transform back thus freeing up the hitch: Complete. Step: Take the little guards out before they can react: In progress.

"Night?" The older of my two brothers' stunned voices caught my attention.

I hid my grin and languidly stood from my crouch optics locking on his golden form. "Sunny."

"What are you doing here?" This time it was Sides who asked the question, his large form strung tight. He looked like he was seeing a ghost... or like he wanted to hug me.

"Sorry Sides, but this little procession stops here." From the corner of my optic, I saw Jazz tense but it was barely even noted as I struck out at my brothers' processors with my pulse disruptor.

Sunny went down onto one knee with a pained growl, while Sides gave a startled cry and fell face first onto the ground. I felt bad for an astrosecond about doing this to them but, I had to. If I was willing to use the bond I would apologize to them, even if I was angry at them. But, I did nothing of the sort dismissing them instead as I turned towards the other two mechs. "Hand over the shipment and you can walk away with your frames intact."

"An' why woul' ah do dat?" Jazz challenged as he fell into a defensive crouch.

"Because I can simply go through you to get to it." I shrugged carelessly, causing the other mech's wings to twitch. My optics briefly followed the movement, though my attention did not stray from Jazz for too long. He was the only threat here. Well besides me.

He refused to move from where he was standing defensively in front of the shipment. "Take it if ya can."

"Very well then." Tensing my leg relays I lunged, not at Jazz, but at the small yellow mech, hitting him square in the chest plates and sending us rolling. I came up out of our little mess of limbs in a perfect crouch following through with my plan perfectly by retrieving a stun bomb and tossing it at his helm where it exploded with a bright shrill sounding blast.

Jazz rushed me then managing to land a blow to my face plates that sent me reeling back slightly, but I was nothing if not tough, so I looked at him while shaking it off with a small grin. "Your team's down mech." I taunted absently poking at the small yellow mech with my ped... he didn't even respond because he was so dazed.

While I was talking to Jazz I opened a comm channel to Wrecker. **:Get down here and hitch yourself up. Then, get the frag out of here.:**

**:Gotcha.:**

Jazz, sensing my slight distraction, lunged at me while I was communicating with Wrecker. I dropped down and rolled to the side retrieving several throwing knives which I launched at him with deadly precision.

My projectiles suddenly veered off course, much to my surprise, instead coming to rest in the silver mech's servos without doing any damage. "Ya ain' da only bot dat can do some pretty cool stuff." He grinned at me and tossed my knives behind him before rushing me again.

I noticed Wrecker ambling near the front of the trailer briefly and a surge of anxiety shot through me. **:Do not touch those bots near the front of the trailer!:** I threatened him as I weaved between Jazz's lightning fast strikes. This was more fun that I thought it would be!

**:Why? They old boyfriends or somethin'?:**

**:No. Just listen to me or I'll kill you.:** I threatened whilst ducking down to deliver a quick jab to the silver mech's midsection. A small grunt of impact left him as he brought his elbow up and slammed it into my optic.

I reeled back, the pain making my optic throb. What had happened to me just stunning this mech and making a break for it? Yet here I was fighting with him, for what, fun? If I had followed through, he would have been down by now and I could have already made my escape with Wrecker. So why was I hesitating? Sure there was the strain that hitting so many mechs at one time posed on my processor, and there was the fact that I needed to be at one hundred percent in case Wrecker tried anything. That had to be it. I was worried about Wrecker.

But I had not time to waste with play fighting with Jazz either. Wrecker was stupid and I could outsmart him in a fight easy, he wouldn't get away from me if I didn't waste time. With that thought in mind, I turned back to Jazz in time to feel pain explode across my shouler joint, sending me stumbling back slightly. I looked down to where I could see one of my own blades sticking out of my armor, then back at him to see him using that strange wavelength from earlier to toss my knives at me.

A scowl crossed my lips as my irritation spiked. No more playing around. With a fair amount of mental strain I extended my pulse disruptor outward catching him in its effect radius. The effects were instantaneous and had him crashing to the ground on his knee joints... while he grinned at me?

For a moment I wondered why he had that look on his face, but then I remembered that I had to deal with Wrecker. So I turned away from him without uttering a word and started in the direction that my tracking device indicated the menace had gone in.

I stalked past my brothers barely gifting them with a glance, but they sure were watching me. Pain and sorrow were both deeply ingrained in both sets of optics and it hurt me for some reason to see it.

I suddenly sensed something out of place, making me freeze in my tracks. Four EM fields brushed against my own, and they were different than any of the mechs I knew to be in the area. So Wrecker brought back up? And he must have had them wait in Uraya to throw me off, maybe he wasn't so stupid after all.

The bright flash of a plasma blaster discharing caught my attention from up above, it gave me just enough time to spin out of the way so that it only grazed my shoulder, burning paint off. I hissed angrily, the sound bubbling up in my chassis rising with my anger. Why had I not been paying more attention?!

My focus on the other mechs that I had pinned down snapped with a tangible mental force that had me reeling back. My helm started to ache both from that and from aggravation as I surged forward towards the cliff face with a feral shriek. Nobot double crossed me and got away with it! Nobot!

With a series of powerful leaps, I scaled the cliff in astroseconds, my anger prevailing as I surged over the top flying clean over several mechs spread out and huddled down in ambush positions. With an angry growl, I fell on the first, a good sized purple mech, tearing and slashing with my wrist blades. His energon sprayed out covering me as I hacked into his throat without mercy until he gave a horrible choking sound and fell on his back.

Breathing hard, I lunged forward into a roll avoiding another blaster shot, only seeing red, only feeling the need to shed energon. I used my heeled peds to catch traction bringing myself up so that I was almost running prallel to the actual ground on a jagged rock for a nanoklik.

The next mech, a smaller red mech with red optics, took aim at me again and fired.

I felt the sting in my left shoulder, but it did not slow me down in the least, my anger numbed the pain anyways. Sadistic glee consumed me when my target reeled back in horror, terror welling in those disgusting red optics, and I lunged at him severing his helm off in one clean swipe. The energon coated me, filling me with an energon rage making me feel high.

Activating my heel blades, I spun slamming my right heel down into the weak knee joint of the largest mech, a black and orange mech with red optics. He howled in pain as I twisted tearing out part of his joint mid spin before I brought my other ped up and kicked him in the bottom of the jaw, my blade piercing him there.

He tore into my right side ripping armor off, but I didn't even pay attention to the pain or the red warning on my HUD as I spun using my servos to bring me up around his shoulder, blade still lodged in his jaw, and jerked his helm until there was a sickening crack. He fell dead to the ground below.

Energon coated my frame... I turned to face the last mech only to see that he had fled. I made to go after him intent on finishing what I had started, but I remembered Wrecker and the stolen shipment. If I didn't bring the shipment back, then I didn't get paid. That glitch could wait until later, and besides, I would remember that nasty murky brown paint anywhere.

I grinned ferally and vaulted down the other side of the cliff onto flatter terrain. Wrecker had gone this way when he had taken off and I knew that I was faster than him. But, as I landed in a crouch upon the ground, I noticed several other sets of tire marks behind his. So the Autobots had gone to retrieve the shipment?

Fraggit all to pit! If they killed Wrecker, I had no way to get the shipment back! I growled and shifted down to my alt mode tearing off after them all in hot pursuit.

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><p>When I finally caught up to them, all that was left of Wrecker was a shredded frame, couresty of my brothers and their dripping blades that were coated in the fools energon. All of them turned in my direction as I shifted back to my bipedal mode and threw my servos up towards the night sky. "You had to kill him, didn't you?!" I exclaimed in annoyance. Now how was I supposed to get the shipment back?! Slaggit all to pit!<p>

"Well, our mission was to protect this shipment." The yellow mech responded quietly eyeing me like he didn't quite know what to make of me. Yeah, I'd look at me like that too!

"I know that genius! But it was my job to recover it!" I growled before stalking over to the downed mech to deliver a withering kick to his side. Argh! I lost two thousand five hundred credits thanks to this idiot! Now how was I going to make my payment?! With a frustrated huff, I threw myself onto a small rock and crossed my legs, leaning my helm onto my right servo.

Why were they all just standing there watching me? "Don't you have to get that shipment back to New Iacon?" I huffed. Having my brothers watching me was especially getting on my nerves! The look they were giving me was something that I just did not know how to respond to! It was a mixture between scolding and affectionate, yet somewhat sad? What the frag was up with it? "Stop looking at me like that."

"How else are we supposed to look at you?" Sides shot back.

"You don't! Now get outta here already!" Here I was leaking, down a slag ton of credits, short on my payment, and all of this meant that I was in trouble. And when I was in trouble, I got angry just like a scolded sparkling.

"Umm, you have a hole in your side." The yellow mech pointed out, still eyeing me weirdly. "Maybe you should, uhhh... you know, do something about it?"

I snorted. "That costs credits little mech! Credits that, thanks to that idiot, I'm short on! I swear!" I jumped up and started ranting angrily as a way of venting. "Why can mechs like that not listen to basic fragging instructions? Where did he think he was gonna go? Did he really think he was gonna get away from me?! I swear a service drone has more processor capacity! And when I find that other little slagger, a horde of angry scraplets will pale in comparison to what I'll do to him!" I grinned ferally, just imagining all the ways that I could kill him slowly and painfully. What could I say? Several millenia in the pit had given me a somewhat sadistic side.

"Umm, Night, maybe you should sit down?" Sides edged over towards me cautiously, almost like he thought that I would lash out at him.

"Why?" I was in some pain, but pain was easy to just disconnect after vorns of being torn apart in the pits over and over again. Small I was, weak I was not.

"Well, 'Bee was right, you do have a hole in your side." Sunny muttered warily. "And you're leaking all over the place."

"It's not even that bad and you know it." I said without looking at him. My pedes were going to wear a trail into the ground from my pacing. A large servo clamping down on my shoulder had me stopping my my tracks. My helm whipped to the side so fast that I almost got whiplash as I brought my claws up to strike, only to stop when I caught sight of Sides. Oh right, I was having a moment of insanity where I was ranting and raving in front of them because I was slagged off. How silly of me to forget that.

"It's worse than you think." Sides gestured down to my wound with a worried expression. "It needs to be treated soon or you will leak to death. The shoulder wound looks painful as well."

Oh right, I had been shot, too. Great, more credits that I did not have, to pay for wounds that I would not have if Wrecker had not been an idiot. Maybe Spill would do an IOU for me seeing as how his services were slag in the first place, no probably not, he was a greedy old bastard. It was either credits or frametrade, and he was even more disgusting than Ramshock.

With a sigh I stood up and jumped off the rock I was perched on. No use crying over what could not be changed I guess, even if it did slag me off. I started in the opposite direction without looking back once, only I didn't get very far before another large servo jerked me to a stop.

"Where are you going?" Sunny's grumpy voice asked me.

"Back to Polyhex." I answered in a duh tone of voice.

"Ah don' think ya gonna make it ta Poly'ex like dat femme."

I whipped around and glared at the smirking silver mech who had the audacity to even give an opinion on things that weren't his business! I made to step past Sunny and unload on him when a bright flash caught my attention over my brother's right shoulder.

Fear hit my spark hard when I realized that it was the discharge of a weapon... and it was aimed straight at the back of my brother's helm. Our time together, the good times briefly flashed across my processor as I changed direction and gave him a hard forceful shove at the same time that the sound of the weapon firing must have registered to him, 'cause he looked back over his shoulder in surprise.

As soon as I shoved him, those dark blue optics shot back to me in fear when he realized what I was doing. But he hit the ground hard anyways when I used my pede to trip him.

And then pain was lighting off in my chassis making me release a strangled cry. Heat and agony overtook every receptor in my frame as I flew back and crashed into the ground a fair distance away.

Pain. I could feel my energon leaking out from me steadily, too fast for it to be anything but a mortal wound. Pedes pounded over to me before three familiar faces were in my space. I vaguely wondered where the last mech had gone, but my world started to distort from energon loss.

At least I would not have to worry about debts or pain, the ever present agony of just living. Death must be wonderful, even if some part of me really did not want to go and die yet.

Servos were on my face shaking me. Voices were shouting at me, but they all blurred and faded as my consciousness faded.

The last thing that I remember feeling was the bond that I had kept tightly shut burst open, absolute terror and desperation hitting my spark hard. Weakly I flared the bond with apologies and regret.

**[I love you.]** And then everything went dark.

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><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

I'm working on building up chapters for this story before I actually post! Hope you guys like all the work I've been putting into it! And thanks to Silent Shooter for betaing each chapter! Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>The first thing that I became aware of was a pained throbbing in my spark chamber. I could not remember exactly what happened to me for a few kliks as I lay there confused and hurting, but the pain wasn't really that bad compared to some things I had been through. Still, it didn't mean that I wasn't confused. What the pit had happened to me?<p>

The sound of a heavy door sliding open caught my attention before a gruff voice rang out. "Why are you two slaggers still in my med bay?" Who? Slaggers?

"Did you think we were going to leave our sister here with you? If we did, we'd come back and she'd be wrenched into stasis or something."

I started, optics quickly unshuttering and shooting over to the side where both of my brothers were sitting. They hadn't seemed to notice that I was online yet, for they were too busy glaring at the mech who had spoken only a klik ago. My optics briefly roamed over their now pristine and undented frames, clean from the small scuffs and dings that they had earned in their scuffle with Wrecker. Then, my attention switched to the room around me, its pristine white walls making my optics hurt. Med bay, only this one was clean and sterile.

And I was laying on a berth that was more comfortable than what I was used to. I turned my helm slightly so that I could make out a large green mech wearing a scowl on his face. That blasted insignia was present on him the same as it was on my brothers, so I figured that I was in the Autobot base. Which meant that I was probably in deep trouble. I mean, I had tried to steal a drug shipment from the Prime's soldiers, so I was probably just the scum of the plant like everybot else.

**[What the frag did I get myself into now?]** I said to myself, not realizing that the sparkbond between myself and my older brothers was now wide open, and that both of them had turned sharply in my direction.

**[The way you said that makes me wonder what you've been doing since we left.]**

I nearly jumped out of my armor upon hearing Sides' voice in my helm. Turning to him, I glared at him as threateningly as I could muster. **[What the frag?! Why can I hear you again?]**

My tone earned my a scowl from the older of my two brothers.** [You act like that's a bad thing. I'll admit that sometimes hearing Sides grates on my processor but you aren't nearly as bad.]**

**[Hey!]** Sides protested with a pout. **[What's wrong with hearing my voice?]**

**[You're annoying.]**

**[Idiots. How did I get here and where is here?]** I interrupted their petty argument. Honestly, I did not have time to listen to it, nor was I in any mood to. I was trapped in the med bay of the Autobot base with who knows how many enforcers wandering around who would probably like to tear me apart for being a mercenary, or A.K.A. a criminal, because that's what anybot that didn't join a faction was apparently. So, I guess I kind of already knew where I was, but still!

**[You're in New Iacon.]** Sides answered me with a worried poke over the bond. **[You took a plasma shot that hit the side of your spark chamber. We had to rush you back here so that Ratchet could treat it before you leaked to death.]**

**[Speaking of that...]** Sunny cut in sounding and feeling angry, which had me looking over at him in surprise. **[What did you think you were doing there? Haven't we decided that as your older brothers we protect you, not the other way around? Why would you do something like that?]**

**[Excuse me?]** I growled sending every ounce of anger I could at them.** [Uh... that agreement is long in the past, Sunshine! You know, way in the past, as in back to when I thought you had either died or abandoned me? I've been on my own all this time, living by my own rules! I don't need you to come back and play overprotective big brother anymore!]**

Sides flinched while Sunny narrowed his optics at me. Whatever! I didn't care if he got mad at me for saying exactly what I thought! And it was what I thought! I didn't need to be protected! I wasn't some weak needy little femme that couldn't fight her own battles! Even when they had been with me I was never like that! I could not afford to be like that after our creators were murdered! I had to grow up! I had to be strong! And I had only grown stronger in their absense! So they could glare and get angry! They could cling to the image of who I used to be! Because they would both be getting a major wake up call if they hadn't already! Nobot was going to control me! Nobot was going to tell me what to do like I was some incompetent sparkling! Even them!

During my internal ranting I did not dampen the bond down or close it off. I left it wide open so that they could hear and feel everything I was thinking and feeling. They had to understand that I wasn't reliant on them anymore! They had to understand that, as soon as I was well I was walking out that door and I wasn't coming back! I was no Autobot! I wasn't welcome here! I didn't want to be here!

"If you three are done with your little sibling argument, I would like to check over her wounds."

The gruff voice of the medic startled me slightly since I had been so absorbed in our discussion that I had forgotten about his presence. And what did he mean 'check my wounds?' Did he think that I was going to let him mess around in my spark chamber? Did he think I was stupid?

I turned my helm and bared my denta releasing a threatening snarl. He would not get anywhere near my spark chamber!

The large green mech scowled at me. "Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, talk some sense into your sister before I show her one of my wrenches."

**[Night just calm down. Ratchet's a great medic, he knows what he's doing, so let him work.]**

**[Let him near my spark chamber? Are you crazy Sides? I don't even know him!]** I shifted away and growled at the servo reaching for me. Never had I ever let somebot near my sparkchamber of my own volition. Sure, I had been sexed as a sparkling, which was mortifying, and the occassional time as a shareware that my brothers didn't know about. But never had I been ok with it. And I wasn't ok with it here! And if he didn't back off I was going to fly off this berth and rake my claws down his face plates.

**BAM!** Something collided hard with my helm, sending pain flaring through my neural network. I released a pained hiss and clutched at my now dented helm as I glared at the medic who was absently twirling a wrench in his right servo. Had-had he just fragging hit me?!

Rage instantly consumed me in the space of an astrosecond! Nobot hit me and got away with it! Nobot! I leapt up with an enraged snarl and lunged for his weathered looking face plates with my claws extended to rip into him.

Something clanged to the floor behind me as arms shot around me, stopping me short of landing my attack on the medic's somewhat surprised looking face plates. He hid it well, but I could see that he had not been expecting that from me.

"Night, calm down!" Sides yelped as I thrashed angrily in his hold.

"Babyspark, cut it out! You'll hurt yourself more!"

My spark was pulsing sending out steady blasts of sheer rage, I was sure that they could feel it, and I could feel the calming waves that they were trying to send back. This only angered me more! How dare they try to manipulate me after they just left me behind!? What right did they have to use the bond at all?

I lost the test of strength fast, as my small frame was just not cut out for excess amounts of power. Before I knew it, I was pinned against Sunny's chassis, hissing and growling angrily. He kept trying to talk me down using my old sparkling nickname. I hated it. He had to know that I hated being called that. The name reeked of innocence and I was anything but! It only made my spark hurt.

Or maybe the sharp pain in my spark chamber was caused by my injuries? Or both? It hit me hard, leaving me panting and hissing weakly as my spark throbbed along with my spark chamber and casing. My rage died down to a simmer, ready to ignite again at any moment and at that moment, I knew that they were manipulating what I was feeling, that they had broken past my defenses and calmed me against my will. I hissed again as I was laid down on the medical berth once more.

The medic, who was apparently designated Ratchet, tsked at me as he set me up with another IV line to replace the one that I had not even realized I had torn out. He hooked me back to the spark beat monitor as well, since I had apparently ripped that off in my haste to get to him too. He came back around to the side of my berth and tapped my chest plates. "Open please."

Like pit! I stubbornly refused to open myself up to him. I did not want a mech touching my spark!

"I said, 'open please'." He bit out.

"Come on, Night. We're right here and we won't let anything bad happen to you." Sides tried reasoning with me.

Right. Like they would turn on their own faction to protect me! Some part of me whispered that they would, that they always had been my protectors. But how could I listen to that voice, a part of me that I did not even recognize anymore?

"I can open them manually you know?" The big green aft informed me. "Or you can be a good femme and open them for me."

I hissed at him in response, feeling threatened and cornered. My brothers kept trying to work me down, but I was fast entering fight or flight mode and I was leaning more towards flight at this point. I was injured, scared, angry, surrounded, and I just wanted to get away!

My optics shot around wildly looking for any place to escape to! Anywhere that I could go to get away from this mech that wanted to mess with my fragging essense! I honed in on a vent system right over Sides' helm that looked large enough for me to fit in but definitely too small for any of them to get into, and I went for it. Leaping up from the berth tearing my new IV and sparkbeat monitor from my frame, I flew over Sides' helm in a flash tearing the vent covering open and wriggling my way inside of it before they had time to do little more than stand.

Laying on my abdominal plates, I army crawled through the system feeling the throbbing in my spark chamber grow stronger every few kliks. It got hard to ignore the pain the more I scraped my tender chassis against the metal beneath me but I would not rest until I was certain that none of them could find me. Then, I would work on finding a way out.

If I could keep my systems online that is...

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><p>(Jazz's POV)<p>

"So le' meh get dis straigh'." I started while looking around at Ratchet, and the twins, Optimus standing just opposite of Ratchet. He and Ratchet had called me here to look for Nightsong who had escaped into the vents. "Ya scared da poo' t'ing ta da poin' dat she fled inta da vent systems? Now ya wan' meh ta crawl in afta 'er an' bring 'er back ou'?"

"Yes, Jazz." Ratchet sighed quietly. "Her spark chamber is damaged, she is in no condition to be moving about. And since none of us are small enough to get into the vent systems, we need you to go in and bring her back out."

"An' ya t'ink dat she's gonna come ou' willingly?" I grinned since I knew she was gonna fight me all the way. That femme was just fiery like that.

Ratchet stalked over to a counter and grabbed a syringe filled with some type of sedative. "If she gives you trouble, use this!" He jammed it into my servos and shoved me towards the vent. "Do not jostle her! Be gentle and do not strain her injuries!" I subspaced the syringe and he gave me a lift into the vent.

"Ah'll be righ' back mechs! Hopefully wit' dat pretty li'l femme in tow!" I turned into the vent grinning when the twins growled at me.

I crawled into the vent that was a little small for me, cramped, but I had to find that femme and drag her little aft back out, or else Ratchet was gonna have my aft. I saw traces of her paint streaked across the floor of the vent along with trace amounts of energon. "Must'a opened 'er wounds back up."

I followed the trail she left behind for at least a breem. Femme had managed to get pretty far in her condition. I was a little worried that she had split her chassis open by tearing into the weld by dragging herself along the floor. If that was the case Ratchet was gonna have to weld her shut again, which I knew doc bot wasn't gonna be happy to have to do again.

As I crawled further into the vent systems, I found myself wondering what boss bot planned on doing with Nightsong. I knew he wouldn't hurt her or nothing like that, but he had shown interest in speaking to her. Of course I had told him about how she had easily taken down Plasmarage, and just about anything else that had gotten in her way. Maybe he had interest in that? Well, maybe not. Ratchet had told us that she was probably Bee's age, if not a little younger then him, so maybe the fact that she was a youngling to the rest of us had something to do with it.

I crawled around another corner and my optics finally landed on my target laying curled on her side, apparently in recharge. Well now what was I supposed to do with her? She was already in recharge so there was no need to sedate her, but if she woke up while I was taking her back she might fight me, and that wouldn't be good. Maybe I should sedate her anyways?

I crawled a little closer to her, peering down at her slumbering face. She looked peaceful unlike she did when she was awake, and I could better study her soft features this way. I wonder how she ended up so small and pretty when the twins were big and... I dunno, mechly.

Sometime while I was staring, her optics had onlined and when I snapped to attention again, those pale blue optics were staring at me groggily. I grinned softly at her. "Good mornin'."

Herr optics widened in surprise as a soft cooing noise worked its way out of her. She blushed and scowled at me probably embarrassed to have made that sound. Her frame tensed into a ball as she issued a low warning hissing sound.

"Oh, so now ya wanna get grumpay?" My grin widened when she hissed at me again. Yup, definitely fiery. Maybe I would have to use the sedatives after all, but I'd rather get her to come on her own rather than forcing her to come with me.

Those delicate looking door wings twitched atop her small shoulders as she stared at me. "What do you want?"

"You're 'urt." I pointed at her leaking chassis to emphasise my point. "Ya need ta get back ta Ratchet so 'e can fix yo' up."

"You mean so that he can put his nasty servos all over my spark! Why don't I just let him rip it out for fun?"

Was that what she thought Ratchet was gonna do to her? Made sense I supposed, bots on this planet went feral after we left them behind. I guess that younglings like Nightsong probably suffered a lot with nobot to protect them. There was so many things that bots could do to another bot's spark, spark raping, and so on. It was almost impossible to tell what had happened to her. "Ratchet won' do dat ta ya. If ya misbehave 'e migh' belt ya wit' a wrench, but 'e woul' neva 'urt ya like dat. Da twins wouldn' let anybot eitha." Neitha woul' ah.

"I'm not going back out there. I don't need his help." She persisted.

"Ah t'ink dat ya really do need 'is help. Your energon's all over da vent system." Dipping one of my clawed digits into the substance, I brought it up so that she could see it for herself. It didn't seem to phase her cause she stared at it briefly, then turned her attention back to glaring at me. Her posture told me that she felt threatened, armor locked down, wings flared high, as defensive as the twins when they first came to us. They didn't trust a single bot for a long time, I hoped that she wouldn't be the same.

"Look femme," I spoke up without my accent like I normally did while being serious. "Nobot is going to hurt you. Ratchet is just going to reseal that wound, then he is going to make you refuel! Then if you're feeling up to it, Optimus wants to talk to you. Nothing bad is going to happen."

She tilted her helm at me curiously. "Why are you talking like that?"

I perked up and grinned at her. "Ah talk like dat to let o'her bots know dat ah'm bein' serious. See when ah talk wit' mah accent, it means ah'm relaxed! When ah talk like everybot else, it means ah'm bein' dead serious."

"Strange." She muttered.

"No' really." I shrugged. "So are ya gonna come ou'? Or do ah 'ave ta drag ya ou'? Cuz ah really don' wanna 'ave ta do dat femme, but if ya stay in 'ere ya are gonna leak ta death."

She scowled at meh. "I'm not a member of your faction! We neutrals know how you Autobots and Decepticons view us! If you don't join a side you're as bad as the opposite faction! No better then a fragging criminal! And it's been even worse since you came back! You know what we had to do to survive! You all think that we're no better than savages!"

My spark suddenly pulsed painfully in my chassis upon hearing those words spoken like that. Was that what the neutrals thought of us? Did they think that we looked at them like that? I knew that some of them didn't have a choice in joining a side, some of them couldn't do anything at all. So how could we blame them? How could we judge bots like Nightsong for just surviving? Everybot had the right to preserve their own life. And maybe some of them would come to understand us and what we had done to protect them, even if they didn't see it right away. We had all done what we had done to protect our home and its people, Nightsong included.

"It ain' like dat femme. Ah know ya won' believe meh right away, but femme, ah never looked at neutrals an' saw faceless nobots, criminals, or anyt'in' like dat. Ah know dat some of ya did bad t'ings ta make it, but wat choice did ya have? We were away fightin' a war, an' you all were here fightin' ano'her one. How can ah fault ya for survivin' even if ya 'ad ta do t'hings dat o'her bots may find... distasteful?"

Her optics hardened, quivering around the edges as she stared me down intensely. That gaze pierced through me, down into my very spark, like she could see everything in me. Her gaze burned deep, deeper then anything I had ever seen, strangely, it reminded me of Optimus when he stared bots down weighingly.

A sudden shuddering cough racked through her, making her shutter those intense optics from me. Energon sprayed from her mouth and splattered against the floor of the vent, making my vents hitch. In a flash, I lurched forward and hooked my servos around her, hauling her up so that her back was against my chassis as I back tracked through the vents.

"Let go of me." She coughed weakly.

"Shh! Jus' let meh get ya ta Ratchet before ya offline." I shushed her while I used my peds to push us back faster.

I wasn't looking where I was going in my haste to get her safely into the med bay... maybe that was why I suddenly fell backwards out of the vent flat onto my back with her sprawled on top of me? I only laid there for an astrosecond before I lunged up, bringing her with me, I spun around and rushed past the twins to set her on a the berth she Had vacated earlier. "Ratchet, she split 'er weld open again!"

As soon as her back hit the berth, I was ushered aside briskly so that Ratchet could hook her to spark support and the works. "Blasted femme! You not only tore open your weld but you busted open some of the energon lines that I staunched! Now sit still you pit spawn and let me work!"

A weak growl was the response to that... it made me grin despite the situation. Fiery femme. I was sure that the twins would make her stay on base, at least I hoped so, and if she did, I was going to take the time to get to know her some more. She definitely interested me.

"Anybot that's not a medic get out! I need room to work!"

Both twins growled. "No way! We promised that we wouldn't leave her alone with you!" Sunstreaker growled.

"Yeah! We're not going to break our promises to her anymore!" Sides added.

Both of them planted themselves squarely, refusing to move even when Ratchet turned to glare at them. That glare eventually shifted to me when I just stood there as well.

"And what reason do you have for staying?"

I shrugged. "Wanna make sure dat ya don' scare 'er anymore."

Ratchet growled at us, seeming to contemplate something, probably whether or not to throw a wrench at us. He suddenly dismissed us when Nightsong started to cough again. "Stay out of my way then!" He snapped at us.

When I looked to the twins, I noticed that they were paying no attention to me whatsoever, so I shrugged and took a seat in one of the chairs nearby, my optics staying locked on the dark purple and silver helm on the berth. I hoped that she would be ok.

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><p>Almost a joor went by while Ratchet worked on reconnecting the energon lines that Night had severed, and welding her right breast plate shut again. Sometime during the procedure the sedatives had put Night in deep recharge and she was now resting peacefully. I knew that she had fought to stay online valiantly and this led to Ratchet having to up the dose to put her under.<p>

Now that Ratchet was finished working on her, I was sure that he would bring her out of recharge soon. Right now, he was working on cleaning himself up at the sink, this giving us a clear view of Nightsong's recharging form.

"I'm going to bring her out of recharge now, but it may take a few kliks." Ratchet informed us as he jabbed a syringe into Nightsong's IV. "Optimus wants to speak to her as soon as she comes online... probably about the drug shipment that she tried to steal back."

I was intensely interested in what exactly had happened, and what exactly was in that shipment. "Wha was in dat shipment anyways? Wha kind of drugs?"

"I have not had a chance to look at it yet, so I sent Jolt and he has not yet commed me. But then again, this femme probably knows exactly what is in that trailer. That is probably why Optimus wants to talk to her."

Both twins tensed optics honing in on the berth where their sister was resting. "He's not going to... " Sides started quietly.

I stretched, causing my back struts to crack as I looked at Sides from the corner of my optics. "Ah doubt it Sides. She did save Sunstreaker from bein' shot, righ'? An' she's still pretty young, ah doubt dat 'e will jail 'er."

"We'll see soon enough." Ratchet muttered grumpily. "I'll go get him. Stay here and make sure that she doesn't jump into the vents again." With that, he stalked from the room, leaving us to sit there doing nothing but watch Nightsong.

Both the twins moved to sit beside the berth, 'Streaker taking her small servo in his before bringing it to his lips and kissing it. It surprised me to see him being so affectionate in a way that I had not even really even seen him be with Sides. Sure, they were more affectionate to each other then any other bot, but not like this.

Then again, she was their baby sister whom they had lost for a long time. But I couldn't help but to think that I was intruding on a private family moment. It made me mildly uncomfortable to watch it. Then again, something about it warmed my spark as well.

I guess that even the twins were capable of openly showing affection... Still I took a still photo for later, just in case I needed to get rid of a couple comms shifts...

I grinned and filed it away for later, in time for the boss bot to walk in through the med bay doors. I guess that as soon as Night woke up, Prime was gonna grill her... politely of course.

And something told me that she was gonna give him a real hard time.

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><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

I want to thank JMSpellbound for helping me decide on what drugs to use for the more suggestive content! Another thanks to Silent shooter for betaing! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>I came out of recharge feeling sore and groggy, my helm spinning dizzyingly. I could barely remember what happened prior to my falling into recharge. it was all a blur. There was pain, and... I remembered talking to someone, but I can't remember who. Then, I remember feeling irritated. But, then after that, nothing.<p>

A soft groan escaped me as I unshuttered my optics so that I could see, bright light striking me hard making me flinch back and shutter them in a quick blink. I lifted a servo and shielded my sensitive optics from the light as I twitched my door wings minutely. They weakly flared up when several EM fields brushed across my own, this catching my attention more fully. Two I recognized well, the third I was somewhat familiar with, and the last two I was not at all familiar with.

Slowly, I lifted my helm up so that I could clearly see the five mechs gathered around the room, the sight putting me on the defensive. Or more like the sight of who I knew to be Optimus Prime staring me down put me on the defensive. He must be angry that I attempted to steal the drug shipment back! Well, too bad, because I wasn't apologizing for it. I would already be paying for it at some point soon when my debt collector showed up... what I did not have would be hit with interest, or more like what I did not have would be doubled and added to my total of owed credits. So there was another four thousand credits that I have to somehow manage to pay off!

It didn't matter to me that I was in his base with his soldiers running about all over the place, armed and probably more than willing to shoot me down. I was too prideful to show him fear. Not that I was afraid... even if I could not sit up or move to defend myself, well, not without causing more damage to myself in the process.

"What? Did you want something?" I snapped rudely. In my processor there could only be three reasons for why I was here. One: He was going to jail me for trying to steal the shipment back, or worse have me killed. Two: He was going to interrogate me for information. Or three: both. Yeah, probably both.

It was kind of funny to me when such a large mech raised an optic ridge at me, something about seeing it on the Prime's face... well it was definitely humorous. The words that came out of his mouth next, however, did not humor me.

"What is in that shipment that you tried to steal from my Soldiers?" His deep baritone washed over me making me want to shiver. It sounded strong and so full of authority, fitting such a powerful mech.

Steeling myself, I managed to force an impassive expression onto my face. Did he really think that I was going to tell him? Was he really that stupid? If I told him that, then Shot would have every able bodied bot he had on my aft! I may be strong, but I was not invincible, and I would not be signing my own death warrant by talking. "Like I would tell you."

"We will find out on our own whether you tell us or not, however, I wanted to give you a chance to come clean and do the right thing."

The rest of the mechs in the room faded from my focus as I turned all of my attention to trying to work this large red and blue mech out. How did he think things worked on this planet? Did he think that if I told him nobot would know about it? I knew that they were taking in new Recruits, and I also knew that it meant that there would be bots on the inside making sure that the main criminal bodies' business stayed a secret. Anybot that talked would be found out. Maybe these idiots were too stupid to understand that.

Even so, I found what he said humorous. Do the right thing? HA! Did he think that the bots on this planet had survived by doing the right thing?! Did he think that he was going to come prancing back and perform some little clean up and everything would suddenly be ok? Cybertron was dead, gone. Everybot was either a cold sparked killer or a druggy, or maybe even both! Or there were those bots that hid behind other bots, letting them take the fall as a means of surviving, users every last one of them! I may be a mercenary, cold and calculating, but I had never hid behind another bot and let them take a killing blow for me. I had always stood on my own! I had survived without becoming a worthless junky, by becoming a killer. So, yes, what he said was funny to me.

I cracked a grin and giggled softly. "Do the right thing? Is that what you think bots do on this planet? Where have you been? Oh, wait, you've been off prancing through space fighting those Deceptiscums." Hefting my creaking frame up I managed to get myself onto my elbows somewhat comfortably. "You know... those murderers aren't much different to the bots you're going to find here. How long will it be until you decide that the neutrals need to be exterminated, too?

"We didn't choose a side in your little fight so that must make us bad right?" I continued on looking straight at him, straight into his optics unwaveringly. "And now that you've come back that's only going to be proven true. We're all murderers and cutthroats, druggies and sharewares, survivors and cowards that hid behind the rest of us. And here you are saying that you want to give me the chance to do the right thing?" My helm fell back as I let loose a sardonic laugh. "That's hilarious! It's the funniest thing that I've herd in who-knows-how-long!"

The room went deadly silent, the sound of a pin dropping could be heard easily. I didn't care though, because I was still laughing at the sheer absurdity of the situation I had found myself in. Oh, I wasn't crazy and I knew that I was playing with fire, 'but do the right thing?!' Since when had I ever done what these idiots would consider right? I killed for credits and because I had nothing better to do. I killed because it was kill or be killed. What else was there?

My laughter finally died down, leaving me gasping for air. And the Prime was still staring at me patiently, probably waiting for my outburst to be over with. From the corner of my optics I saw my brothers gaping at me disapprovingly, and the silver mech beside them was staring at me intently. I snorted easily dismissing them. "What do you really want from me? Surely you know that I can't tell you anything about that shipment? I do want to live you know?"

"I have no intention of having you killed."

"Not you." I drawled slowly. "Look, I know that you're taking in new recruits from the population, so it stands to reason that these bots that are dealing drugs and doing all these reprehensible things have optics and audios in your base. And don't tell me that it's not possible, 'cause it is. Any smart Crime lord would take advantage of the situation... and as strong and ruthless as I am I can't fight the entire world off. So think of my silence as... pursuing my own interests." With that, I laid back down and got comfortable, though I was not expecting him to leave me alone. He would keep trying to question me until I cracked. Not that I would.

"What if I told you that, whatever you say in this room will not move past me and my commanding officers? With the exception of your brothers, but I doubt that they would talk to anybot."

"Like I trust you or your enforcers. You'd sooner arrest me then help me." Of that I was sure.

"Then why would I leave behind a planet that had become like another home, a much more peaceful home, to return to a dying world? Why would I invest my time and resources trying to rebuild if I did not care about Cybertron or her people?"

"I don't know." I answered honestly. Probably to get some sort of sick amusement from looking at what the bots around had been reduced to. It had not escaped my notice that each one of these glitches was pristine in paint and frame, healthy and well fed. Not starving like the rest of us. What was worse was that they had moved back in and taken over all the energon mines, taking energon for themselves. Sure they dispensed it to the neutrals as well to foster better relations, but most were still starving. Nobot could afford the cost of energon these days.

The faces of starving bots were all too familiar to me wherever I went and it made me angry. What did these aftholes know about starving? What did they know about suffering? So they had fought in some bloody war! Fragging cry about it! The bots that had been left behind had been forced into the same situation, only it was worse! At least the Autbots had hope and a new world to call home! What did those that stay behind have? No energon, no medical care, no nothing!

That hadn't changed, even after the Autobots had returned. It probably wouldn't ever change. Then again... most of them would rather pay for the circuit boosters than energon. I frowned in disgust, not for the first time, wondering how bots could shoot that stuff into their energon lines. It killed their processors, frying them to a crisp. It was disgusting.

But I could not tell the Prime that. I didn't trust him to keep it hush hush, and if it did get out I would be killed. Somebot would find out and tell Shot or somebot worse.

"Ratchet informed me that your systems were completely clean of any substance besides high grade."

I looked up in surprise. "Yeah what about it?"

"It is just surprising that you stayed behind and yet you have not allowed yourself to fall as far as most. You may be a mercenary, but you have not fallen so low as to take to drugs to cope." His deep blue optics locked with mine with a burning intensity.

"Yeah, well, I don't see the point." I flopped back onto my back and sniffed disdainfully. "Better to have a clear helm than to be drugged up to the point that you're only a liability to everybot, even yourself."

"Do you not think that those that are addicted to these drugs deserve to know the same feeling of clarity that the rest of us do?" He pressed.

"Even if the option was there, most would not stop and you know it." I shot back. "So what would telling you do? Yeah you'd confiscate some of the drugs, in effect forcing them to be clean, but what you fail to realize is that in response the ones that you cut off are going to completely glitch. Violence is going to increase as bots go into withdrawal from not having access to said drugs, and even worse, they'll just go elsewhere to get more. So what do you expect to accomplish? The weak bots just wanna get high and forget and nothing is gonna change that.

"Even if they are cut off, their processors won't recover from using the drugs. They have a permanent and very detrimental effect on the mental processes and even the physical function of the body. Stopping won't repair the damage, and most will be just as crazed without it as they are with it." It was sad and brutal, yes, but it was also true. Circuit boosters killed the processor and caused irreparable damage to the internal systems. As hard as it was to admit it... there was no going back, not for them.

It hurt me to think about it... a sentiment that I had not allowed myself to feel for a very long time. But here and now I just could not help but to feel it. I may be a glitch and a killer, but at one point I was innocent... I thought that the world was good... and I found out just how much of a lie that was. It had caused the thin hold I had on my world to shatter, and I didn't want or need drugs to make it better. Nothing would ever make it better, and pretending that it was ok was just pathetic.

'But, what if I was like them' a small part of me whispered. If I was like that, would I want to be ok if it was possible? Would I want reality instead of the swirling mass of colors and sensations? Clarity or dillusion?

What was worse? I shuttered my optics and gently smacked my helm onto the berth top as I warred with myself. Don't talk... keep quiet... or talk and most likely get killed even if it was for a good reason? Everything that I had said was true, but at the same time, if they stopped the drug flow perhaps it would stop other bots from getting addicted.

Why did I even care what happened to everybot else? Most would rather kill me than talk to me and that was fact.

Only when one thing passed through my processor did I decide to talk... The thought of sparklings. Now that the Autobots had returned, bots had started having sparklings again. Now that the war was over it was safe to do so, at least most thought that it was. But now that I thought about it... those sparklings were at risk due to the crazed bots wandering around Cybertron. Nowhere would ever be safe for them so long as bots keep shooting up circuit boosters, and they even ran the risk of getting hooked themselves when they got older. It only took one dose to get the taste for it, and once hooked it, was almost impossible to stop.

When I thought about it, I felt sick. I would probably never have sparklings, but if I ever did, I would not want them around things like that. Damn me and my sudden streak of good nature.

"They're called circuit boosters." I literally felt the atmosphere in the room shift to one of shocked silence when I spoke. "There are a lot of different kinds that I don't remember the names of, but the worst one is called Syk. They are extremely addictive and harmful to anybot that consumes them. One dose is usually all it takes to get a bot hooked."

Sitting up, I ignored the slight pain in my chassis that came with the movement. "I don't know how they are made, I'm not into drugs, honestly. What I do know, is that there are many ways to ingest them, such as ingesting them orally in pill form, liquid form, and they can even be injected into energon candy. Most choose to shoot them via a needle for a quicker and more intense effect.

"I've heard of bots that used once being changed permanently, they're never the same afterwards. Syk is especially destructive to the processor. It literally fries it until the user goes comatose... afterwards they usually die. It's also the most common form of Circuit booster."

"The main line of circuit boosters comes from Vos, then they are distributed out to other dealers in other cities, the other hot spots being Praxus, Pax Tran, and Kaon. From there, they are sold individually by dealers. But that's the extent of what I know."

I leaned my cheek plate onto my servo while I watched them all ingest what I had told them, and to them it must be a lot to take in. Surprising and horrifying. It did not surprise me that the medic looked absolutely disgusted with what I had told him.

"Why would a bot do that to their processor?" He scowled.

"To some it was better than facing the reality of a dying world." I deadpanned earning his complete attention. "Some didn't handle being abandoned and left to die as well as the rest of us, so they took to using circuit boosters."

"Were dey developed af'er we left?" This time it was Jazz that asked.

I looked at him and frowned. "I think that they popped up before that, probably after the war got really bad. Nobot was paying any attention to petty crime anymore when the Autobots and Decepticons started ripping each other apart, so they could pretty much do whatever they wanted and nobot tried to stop them."

"A perfect time to build an illegal empire." Sunny muttered grouchily.

"Yup. Nobot to enforce anything! Pit, nobot to even care that they were doing something in the first place! It was the perfect situation for them to start developing and distributing the drugs! Most bots were mentally weak and caved instantly, just to escape from the horrors of their lives. And bam! Now you have a steady line of buyers within astroseconds. Genius, right?" I offered Prime a fake grin as I clearly let him hear the sarcasm in my voice. It was all true, every word that I had spoken, but that did not make it good. But, then again, when had anything on Cybertron ever been good in the past dozen millenia or so? No, probably even longer than that.

Not once that I could remember. War, death, drugs, rape, kidnapping, all of these things were just the foundation of the world that I had grown up in. It was all that I knew. Maybe that was why it was easy for me to offer a fake grin and make sick twisted jokes about it? Because I did not know anything different from this world of death and destruction.

My chassis started aching, probably from the injury I reasoned. Or maybe it was from remembering. I could not and would not give myself time to think about the second possibility. I had already made myself look weak enough for one day.

"Will you go to Prowl now?" I heard Ratchet ask Prime.

"Yes, I will go and speak to him immediately about what information I have gathered here." Prime's deep baritone responded.

"Good. I think that my patient needs her rest for now. If you or Prowl should have any other questions, I would ask that you please wait for at least a cycle before returning."

My wings perked up interestedly, give me time to rest adequately without the threat of interrogation? Well, that was just strange. I had expected them to be much more pushy and demanding of a lowly mercenary like myself. Then again, Prime knew that I would not talk unless I wanted to anyways, so what was the point of trying to force me?

"Yes, we will do that. If I have any other matters to discuss with her, I will comm you to make sure that she is feeling better beforehand. For now, I believe it would be best to have Sideswipe and Sunstreaker remain here with her to ensure that she feels more comfortable. If there are any other problems, please do contact me."

Heavy ped falls echoed in the room briefly before the med bay doors slid open then slid shut signalling that he had left. Silence engulfed us afterwards with nobot daring to break the silence.

Ratchet just stalked around the room checking the machines hooked to me before stomping into a room at the far end of this one. Probably an office or something. He seemed really grumpy and perpetually angry, something about it actually amused me and made me want to anger him for fun. Of course, I refrained for several reasons. One: I was in no condition. Two: I was not a part of their faction, therefore I would probably only garner more hatred and disdain for myself by doing so.

But still, it did sound fun to me... really fun, actually. I looked towards my brothers... and Jazz, who was still sitting beside them for reasons unknown to me. From what I had gathered, he was one of the Prime's officers, so shouldn't he have gone with him to talk to this Prowl-or-whatever?

Before I could ask that very question, or even think about doing it, my brothers turned their full attention on me, in effect, drawing Jazz's attention to me as well. I stiffened and, had I been standing, my wings most likely would have been flared defensively, but of course, I could not do that with them pinned to the berth beneath me. "What?" I snapped.

Sides cracked a small grin. "Nothing really... I was, we," He hastily corrected while glancing at Sunny from the corner of his optic. "were surprised that you talked as easily as you did. That's all."

I rolled my optics at him. "Yeah, forgive my moment of temporary insanity, for they seem to be happening more and more often ever since I ran into you two again." I snarked sarcastically. I was as good as dead now, I knew that. And now he wanted to joke about it?

Sunny snorted at me halfway in amusement and halfway in irritation. "Like the three of us have ever been sane, Night. So you can't exactly blame us for what's going on in your helm because you've been as messed up as we are from the beginning."

Couldn't argue with that. "True." Though, I know that they had both desperately tried to preserve my innocent sparkling processor through everything, and I knew that on some level admitting that hurt them, I could feel the pain through the bond that was only partially open. Their guilt did not bother me, they could only do what they could do and that was fact. Sometimes when I was little... I wanted to tell them that I wasn't mad at them for all that happened. I wanted to tell them that, even though things were bad, they were always there for me taking the bulk of the burdens on themselves. But the bombing had happened before I could, and then I had spent all my time wandering, thinking that they were dead and that I would never have the chance to tell them until I joined them in the Well of Sparks.

But I couldn't find it in myself now to tell them something like that, either... because we were somewhat distanced and estranged. Sure, the bond was still there, and I could sense that their feelings for me had changed little, but I was conflicted. I had changed a lot since they had gone. I was not the same... and I was sure that when they realized that things would change. They would not look at me and view me with affection and brotherly love when they saw all of my memories... If they saw them. Maybe I should just leave as soon as I was done healing? Put as much distance between myself and them as possible. I would also have to distance myself from Shot and the others for as soon as they found out what had happened, things would get bad for me.

Wasn't that the plan in the first place? Run and hide?

Movement in front of my optics forced me to attention. Apparently I had been so distracted that I had not noticed Jazz in front of my face. "What?"

"Primus femme! Ah was standin' 'ere for almos' a kilk tryin' ta get yo'r attention!" He grinned at me, making those light blue optics sparkle.

The sight drew me in for some odd reason, a slight fluttering in my tanks making itself known. He tilted his helm at me in confusion and lifted a servo to tap at my helm playfully. That's when I realized that I was staring at him closely. "What?"

"Ah asked if ya wanted some energon? Ya look like ya coul' use it."

Confusion hit me then. I was being offered energon? My confusion must have shown clearly but I really did not care. I could not remember the last time that energon had been offered to me... well the last time had been when I was in the youth sectors many millenia ago. "I can have some?" I whispered before I could stop myself.

He raised an optic ridge at me sympathy sparking in his optics. "Course ya can! An' between ya an' meh, Ratchet woul' kick our afts if we didn' make sure ya refuel. So wha'cha want? Normal grade? Medium grade? Low grade? High grade?" The last option was uttered in a mirthful voice.

"Medium grade, I guess." My processor was still whirling over the fact that I didn't have to kill to get some fragging energon!

"Right! 'Old on a klik!" He walked over to a dispenser near the far wall and filled a cube for me before coming back to my side. "Do ya need meh ta lift ya up so ya don' spill it on yaself?"

My brothers were giving the back of Jazz's helm warning looks for some odd reason. Sides stood and stepped around Jazz to prop me up instead. "Thanks Jazz, but I think that we can handle things here."

A gold servo snatched the cube from the silver mech before Sunny wormed his way between us. "Yeah she's OUR sister, so we are more than willing to help her."

_'So get lost.'_ Was the unspoken message.

Jazz seemed to take this all in stride, simply backing away to a safe distance much to my surprise. I couldn't focus on him for too long, though, because in the next astrosecond, a cube of energon was at my lips. My tanks rumbled, reminding me that they were almost empty, so I opened my mouth and took a tiny amount of energon in to test it for anything that wasn't supposed to be there.

The sweet texture rolled around my glossa, just the right amount of sweetness, but not too sweet, which would indicate the presence of poison. I swallowed down the small amount and opened my mouth to gulp down the rest of the contents... as mortifying as it was to have to be fed. But it felt so good to my deprived tanks...

A small part of me was pleased that I hadn't had to struggle for the small cube.

I had to admit that it was nice to simply have it offered for once and to not have to kill or interface for it.

Too bad good things never lasted in my world. This too, would fade away. I was sure of it. Everything good always went away.

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><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Here's Chapter six! I hope that you guys have been enjoying this story so far! There are not a lot of Jazz stories out there that I can find so hopefully I do the guy justice! Anyways I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

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><p><strong>(Jazz's POV)<strong>

"I said no!"

"I don't care what you said! You're staying here!"

"Come on Sunny stop fighting with her already."

"Shut up Sides! Our little sister is not going to go prancing around Cybertron doing whatever she wants to! She's staying here with us! I already asked Prowl to get us a bigger living quarters with a spare berthroom for her to use!"

"Why the pit would you do that?! I'm not staying here!"

"Night, come on sweetspark... Why don't you want to stay with Sunny and I? We missed you."

I had been watching this little argument go on for almost an entire groon so far, and it seemed like there was no end in sight. The twins wanted Night to stay, and Night didn't want to stay. So there lay the problem, since Night seemed to be as stubborn as Sunstreaker, and Sunstreaker was just Sunstreaker. Poor Sides had been trapped in the middle the entire time trying, in vain, to get both of them to settle down. So far, it was no good.

Maybe I should step in and help him play peacemaker? "Why don'cha wanna stay femme? Wha's so great 'bout da world outside? As far as ah can tell, i's just stubbornness dat's makin' ya want ta leave. Ya don' wanna be 'ere wit' da o'her Autobots 'cause ya think they'll stab ya in da back, which dey won'. But ah t'ink dat ya really do wanna stay wit' ya brothers, too."

Nightsong whipped her helm in my direction and scowled at me. "Who asked you Jazz?" She puffed herself up and released a rather impressive growl for such a small thing. "I am not staying! I have no obligations to!"

Before either twin could say anything, I cut in. "But didn' ya say dat o'her bots are gonna be after ya now dat ya talked ta da Prime? Eve' if dey don' hear it from one of deir contacts, it ain' dat hard ta put da pieces togetha righ'? Dey will figure it out, especially since ah'm sure dat some of deir contacts saw ya bein' dragged in 'ere. So ain' it safer ta stay?"

She bared her denta at me and growled. "No it's not! These Autobots of your's will turn on me and shoot me in the back the first chance they get! I'm a mercenary! A fragging criminal to them! I'd rather take my chances out there facing a bunch of druggies than stay here in the middle of a nest of bots that would kill me at the first given chance!"

Stubborn femme! That could definitely be said!

"Nobot is going to do that Night!" Sunstreaker growled at her. "And even if some of them wanted to try, we'd kick their aftpipes in first!"

"Come on Night... we want you to stay here with us!" Sides tried reasonin with her. "We're your big brothers! Since when have we ever not had your best interests at spark?"

Something changed in Night's optics upon hearing those words, a cold anger seeping into em. It was silent as I watched her just stare at both twins who seemed to flinch back at the same time. It was at that point that I realized she was using bond talk on them, but obviously I didn't know what was being said.

But when Sunstreaker suddenly snapped back looking like she had slapped him, I realized that whatever had been said was not good. I had never seen the big lug look so hurt and filled with sorrow, and Sides looked as hurt and filled with guilt as I had ever seen anybot. Before I could say something to them, Sunstreaker turned and walked briskly out of the door. Sides looked between them sadly, before, he too, turned and walked out to calm his twin.

That left me with Nightsong, alone in the med bay. What was I supposed to say? What did she say to them? Well I could kinda guess if I had to... she probably reminded them about the bombing of the youth sectors. If I was her, I might think that I was just forgotten about if my brothers returned after all this time alive and well when I had thought that the reason that they didn't look for me was because they were dead. It would hurt, and I was sure that she was hurting. But the twins were hurting as well, and she had to understand that.

"Night, ah don' t'ink ya are bein' fair ta yo'r brothers." I told her honestly. "Imagine how dey feel righ' now. Ya t'ought dey were dead, well dey t'ought yo' were dead. Ah was dere da day when da youth sectors were bombed, an' we were all told dat only Bee 'ad survived, dat dere were no o'her spark signals detected. Ah don' know how ya made it out, Night, but ah know dat from dat day on da twins suffered. Ah didn' know why, but now dat ah do, ah can say dat dey do love ya. Dey want wha's best for ya."

She had turned away from me while I spoke to her, looking angry and just plain hurt. And I could tell that she didn't wanna look back at me, didn't want to acknowledge what I had said. But I also could tell that she knew what I said was true, she just didn't want to admit it. It must have hurt her too much.

"Jus' give em a chance, Night. Ah promise dat nobot is gonna harm ya if ya stay 'ere. Prime won' allow it, an' da o'her senior officers will not tolerate it. An' even if dat don' discourage em, ya got da twins an' meh ta look out for ya. We got ya back femme, ah promise." What else could I say to her? I knew that some bots would give her a hard time like they did to the other neutrals who joined, but I also knew that if she ignored them, they would get bored and leave her alone. That's what I had to tell some of the new recruits when they complained to me about other bots harassing them, and my advise seemed to help them. Of course I also had several talks with the bots harassing them as well... and that seemed to help also.

She didn't say anything for what must've been almost an entire breem or so. Finally... "Take my chances with these idiots... or take my chances out there with Shot and his mechs?" It was almost a whisper, but I had heard it clearly.

"At leas' in 'ere ya got da twins on yo'r side, an' meh. Ah got ya back if ya need meh." Ah told her honestly. Something about her made me want to help her, made me want to figure out what was under her mask that she always wore. I wasn't stupid, I could see that she was hiding things from the twins and anybot else that looked. A pain just beneath the surface that seemed to consume her completely, but only in moments that she thought nobot was looking. I would see her optics darken with pain unlike any I had ever seen before now, demons seeming to take over the recesses in those moments. I think the twins noticed too, but neither knew what to do ta help her because she wouldn't let em in. She just had to try and they could help! We could help. If only she would try.

"Why? Why would you help me? I attacked you more than once. I tried to steal a shipment from you and in doing so I attacked your teammates. So why would you help me? And better yet, why would I trust you? We met as enemies and even now, I could still be considered that, seeing as how I'm not an Autobot." She turned towards me and raised a delicate optic arch at me in question.

"Well, ya didn' kill me when ya 'ad da chance ta right?" I shot back, knowing that it would get her thinking.

"Well, no." She admitted.

"Right. Ya coulda attacked an' killed meh but ya didn'! Ya let meh go in da end. A real enemy wouldn' 'ave done dat right?" It had been that moment that convinced me she wasn't bad like she thought she was. Killing me would have been easy for her, I was disabled and on the ground vulnerable, but all she had done was talk to me. She hadn't attacked me, or even looked to be really considering it.

She scowled at me and turned away from me. "Sh-shut up!"

"Ah mean it Night, every word ah jus' said. Ta meh, ya ain' an enemy. Sure we 'ad a couple run-ins dat weren' so good, but ya never killed meh or mah teammates when ya coulda done it. Optimus is gonna look at dat an' 'e ain' gonna see ya for da way ya wanna be seen, he's gonna see a bot wit' a good spark no matta wha' ya do ta prove 'im ot'erwise." I walked over to stand beside her berth and placed my servo on her smaller one gently. She looked over at me in surprise, then down at my servo laying over the top of her's.

"Stay here and let your brothers make it up to you." I told her without my accent while trying to ignore the way touching her servo made my spark speed up a bit. It confused me, but I chalked it up to the fact that she was a very good looking femme and I was touching her.

She opened her mouth to say something to me when the doors to the med bay slid open and the twins stalked back in. They took one look at me with my servo holding her's and scowled at me. "Servos off." Sunstreaker hissed.

I grinned and winked at Night's confused looking face before I grabbed her servo in mine and brought it to my lips to kiss it. She blinked at me and flushed a lovely blue color before I was yanked away by Sunstreaker.

He was breathing hard and glaring at me like he wanted to kill me for touching Night, this causing me to grin since I knew that I would be having a lot of fun messing with both of them from now on. If Night stayed that is. "Somet'in' botherin' ya 'Streaker?" I asked innocently.

His chassis started heaving as he bared his denta at me in a snarl. "Keep your wandering servos off of my sister or I'll rip you apart!"

I held my servos up in mock surrender. "Alright! Alright! Ah won' touch 'er unless she wan's meh ta!"

The grip on my throat tightened as an audible snarl left Sunstreaker's mouth. I was almost choking but it was way too much fun to tease him than to let my discomfort be known. So I kept on grinning at him while he choked me just to rile him up.

And it seemed to be working, too, because I swear his optics started flashing white, either that, or I was losing my vision already. Finally, Sides tore him off of me just as my vents started rattling from oxygen deprivation. I fell to the floor on my peds and pulled in a large breath through my vents, easing the pain that the lack of oxygen had done to me. "Wow 'Streaker! Ah didn' t'ink dat anyt'in' coul' get ya dis riled up!" I joked with him.

Sides tossed me a small disapproving glare before shoving Sunstreaker back more. "Back off Sunny! Jazz was only joking, so cool it down a bit!"

Through all of this, Night had just sat there quietly, looking surprised and a little confused. It really was adorable to see such a fiery femme unsure of what was going on around her.

I looked into her optics and gestured at the now arguing twins with a grin on my face.

She scowled, but did turn towards them. "Hey idiot one and two!"

The arguing stopped as both of them turned to face her.

"A couple questions. First! Where the frag do I recharge? Second! Does this room have a lock that will only open with a security override? Third! Where are the fragging wash racks! Do you see my finish? It's covered in dirt and grime!" She scrunched her noseplates up at the specks of dirt and muck on her frame.

"Does this mean you're gonna stay?" Sides piped up like a sparkling that had just gotten their very own petro puppy.

"No, it means that I'm going to be coming back here only to use the wash racks and recharge in Primus knows what place." She snarked.

Sunstreaker scowled at her. "No need to be rude, Night. As for your questions, you can recharge in our berthroom on your own berth that we had moved in for you until we get bigger living quarters to stay in! Second, yes the door does have a lock! Third, we have a wash racks built into our room that you can use! And yes, you are covered in filth, so please use it before you sit on any of the garniture!"

She scowled at him. "Jerk."

* * *

><p><strong>(Nightsong's POV)<strong>

A few cycles later I found myself walking in-between my brothers to my new shared quarters with them. As we walked, it did not escape my notice that the bots we passed gave me odd looks, and several even scowled at me. I only glared back in response which earned me an amused look from Sides. Whatever! I wasn't going to back down from anybot let alone anybot here.

The only thing that did unsettle me was the fact that Jazz was prancing along in front of us. For some reason, don't ask me why, he had insisted that he wanted to come with us. Why he wanted to do that, I have no idea, but my brothers were not at all happy about it, well mostly Sunny was irritated by it, Sides didn't really seem to care. Or maybe it was that he was more focused on keeping Sunny in check.

Anyways, we walked down to the living quarters with me glaring at bots passing by, Sunny glaring at Jazz, and Sides looking exasperated with all of it. But I was so busy glaring that I didn't pay any of them any attention until we finally arrived at their quarters.

"'Ey femme!"

I jerked around when Jazz started waving his servo around in the side of my face. "What?" I looked around and realized that we must be at my brothers' room since the door was painted red and gold. Idiots. "We're here?"

"Yup! Well c'mon!" Jazz grinned at me and I once again asked myself why he was even following us down here. But he had opened the door and tugged me inside before I could think to actually ask.

As soon as I walked into the room I noticed that it was clean, which was something that I never expected from either of my brothers, ever. Literally. But their room was almost gleaming because it was so fragging clean! I looked to the far wall where their double berth was sitting propped against a wall, next to it was a smaller berth that was obviously mine but it was pushed a little away from their's instead of flush against their's. On the other side of the room was a couch and low table just across from a large flat screen T.V.. Over in the corner was a good sized work space that I knew was Sunny's from the tubes of paint laying on a desk, and the various easels used and unused laying around, and just off of that was a good sized door that I assumed led to the washracks. All-in-all, it was better than I had been expecting.

What I really wanted to check out was the washracks and then the berth! Well, the berth would come later because I wasn't tired, but I did want to test how comfortable it was before I actually recharged on it. First things first... to the washracks!

I turned and made a beeline for said room without uttering even one word. How could I even think to talk when I was so filthy? I wasn't vain like Sunny but I did like to be clean, or at least I wasn't nearly as bad as him.

Stepping inside the rather roomy washracks I looked around at the white tiled walls before I walked over to one of the two spigots and turned it on hot. Steam started filling the room almost instantly as I stripped down and placed my armor at my peds so that the water would wash the grime away before I stepped under the spray as well.

A shiver escaped my lips when the scalding hot water ran down over my back struts and chassis soothing me. It felt so good... I grabbed the solvent and sprayed it onto a wash rag so that I could lather my frame up from helm to ped, paying special attention to my door wings, well as much as I could since they were kind of hard to reach. Still I managed to lather them up to my satisfaction before I turned to my armor and lathered that up as well.

Normally I would take my time, but I was supposed to go with my brothers and apparently Jazz, since he was following us around... anyways, they were supposed to be taking me on a tour of the base. So I quickly rinsed off and towel dried myself off until I was shining.

After snapping my armor back on, I stepped back into the main berthroom, catching sight of the back of my brothers' helms as they sat in front of the T.V. playing some sort of game while Jazz stood behind the couch watching them. Until I stepped into the room and his helm snapped over in my direction. Our optics met as that slag eating grin wormed its' way across his lips again. I vaguely wondered if he always smiled and what the pit was there to always smile about...

"Ya finished, femme?" He pushed away from the back of the couch and approached me.

"Yeah." There was this slight sense of unease whenever he was near me, not like I was afraid of him or anything like that but... he just made me feel vulnerable. My door wings twitched in response to my slight nervousness, but he didn't comment on it, though I was sure that I saw his optics catch the movement.

"Well c'mon den! We gotta base ta check ou'! Comin mechs? Or do ah gotta show ya sister 'round wit'out ya?"

Both of them jumped up and made their way over to us at the same time, each of them giving Jazz a slight glare. Sides grabbed my right arm and Sunny grabbed my left and together they led me from the room. I looked up at both of them in confusion while we walked, not really getting the aggression that they were exuding. Then again, I wasn't a mech, therefore I did not have the same programming that they did, so maybe I just couldn't understand exactly why they were acting so weird.

We turned a corner just off of the hallway that contained their room and walked about halfway down this hallway until they pulled me to a stop in front of a room with large doors. A loud ruckus was easily audible from inside. "Ok, so off of the living quarters is the rec room which is right here." Sides informed me. "We refuel and interact with the other bots in here. There's a T.V., music system, and all kinds of video games in here that we can use."

I grimaced as a loud laugh rang out almost shaking the doors of the room. Alright so avoid the rec room.

"We should introduce you to the others." Sides added as an afterthought.

Sudden anxiety shot through me making me tremble slightly. "Umm... no thanks." I told him. I did alright with crowds, but I did not like attention to be on me if I could help it. Call me socially awkward... I did take after Sunny that way. Then again, I could be like Sides, too, when I was with bots that I knew...but I didn't know any of these bots.

Sunny sensing my discomfort started dragging me away before Sides could insist again. **[Thanks.] **I told him over the bond.

He nodded at me. **[No problem.]**

"Hey wait for me!" Sides protested as he ran to catch up with us.

Jazz had sidled up alongside me while Sides had been standing there, so that left Sides to walk on his other side. "Ya like music, Night?" He asked conversationally.

"Music... no, I haven't really heard much." I told him honestly and I was pretty sure that I saw his jaw drop. "What? Is that weird or something?"

"Well, ah guess dat everybot has deir own likes an' dislikes..."

"Oh, it isn't that I dislike it, I've just never really had time to listen to any." I shrugged and turned back to look ahead of me catching Sunny watching Jazz and I talk from the corner of his optics. "Maybe if I listened to some, I would like it. Then again, there aren't really any artists on Cybertron anymore, so there's not a lot of music left."

"Bu' Earth music is pretty good." Jazz told me. "Dey 'ave great compositions ah tell ya! Ya shoul' listen ta some wit' meh some'ime!"

Before I could say anything to him, Sunny tugged me around another corner and stopped in front of another set of doors that I recognized. "The med bay." I deadpanned irritably.

"Yup. Since you already know where it is, I guess we didn't really need to show you, but I figured that we might as well." Sunny told me.

In an astrosecond he had us moving again while he kept a tight grip on my arm. "The Higher ups have offices in this hallway. Prowl is last door to the left at the end of the hall, Optimus is the one at the end of the hall, and Jazz's office is across from Prowl."

I perked up. "Jazz is a commanding officer?"

Jazz looped an arm around my shoulder as we walked. "Ah sure am! Ah'm head of da spybots an' ah'm also da Third in Command if somet'in' were ta happen ta Optimus an' Prowler."

That was an interesting bit of information to be filed away for later. "With the way you act, nobot would ever know that." I told him honestly. He acted like everybot was on even level with him and he did not seem to differentiate between anybot that came into contact with him. I was pretty sure that he was well liked around here from what little interactions I had seen between him and other bots that had come and gone while I was in the med bay. He talked to each of them with familiarity and ease... unlike what I would expect from a superior officer.

"Ah'm a likeable mech, wha' can ah say? Everybot wan's ta know da Jazz man." He winked an optic at me.

"I can tell."

After that, I was quickly shown the shooting range where I met Ironhide and Chromia the weapons specialists. Ironhide seemed gruff, but I could tell that he wasn't all bite and he seemed to like me better than my brothers and Jazz. Chromia was polite but I could tell that she was tough and wouldn't take any scrap from anybot. They were ok in my book, I didn't trust them, but then again I doubted that I would be spending much time with either of them.

Next, I was shown the training rooms where some other mechs were sparing while a small purple femme watched. Arcee was her designation and, as soon a she saw us, she came over to introduce herself to me, which I thought was weird. She seemed nice and I found out that she was a little siter to Chromia and another femme that I had not yet met called Elita-one. And she was also a marksman.

She did not put me off nearly as much as other bots, but that was probably because she was smaller than me, but when the mechs turned and looked my way, I was way done with that. I dragged my brothers and Jazz out as soon as one of them took a step in my direction!

It wasn't that I was... ok so maybe I was a little rude, but still! The only mechs... er bots that I trusted were my brothers and even that was not as tight as it had once been! I had suffered too much to openly allow other bots into my space besides them and Jazz, and the last one was because he kind of forced his way in. There was just something about him that did not scare me or put me on edge like everybot else and I could not figure it out.

Anyways, the rest of the tour was a blur to me. I met several other bots that stopped to actually introduce themselves, such as a mech designated Bluestreak, who talked at astro speed, another mech designated Smokescreen who seemed nice but still kinda put me on edge, and the mech designated Bumblebee from the other day actually stopped to introduce himself.

He seemed nice enough and amiable but I still didn't lower my guard too much around him. I had attacked and knocked him into stasis when I had first met him and I figured that he would be angry about that even if he didn't show it. He only chatted for a klik or two before going off to do a shift in comm control or something.

As soon as he left, my brothers dragged me back down another corridor, only for Jazz to suddenly rip me away and tote me over to another room in the living quarters.

We stopped in front of a large silver door. "Dis is mah room!" He informed me. "If ya eva wanna hang jus' come an' let yaself in! If it's locked ya can comm meh! Mah personal comm channel is 0952678! Comm meh if ya wanna hang!"

"Ok." I filed his comm link channel away for later use. "Well I'm going to go and recharge. See you later." I slowly backed away before turning and loping over to my brothers who once again had glares trained on Jazz.

Together, the three of us made our way back to our room and immediately upon entering, I dove into my berth. My recharge protocols instantly started up causing me to slip into recharge with the soft hum of my brothers' sparks helping to lull me into blessed recharge faster. The last thing that I remember feeling was two soft pressures on my helm.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

Here's chapter seven! No author's note to add to that so let's get started! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

* * *

><p>I woke up feeling better than I normally did, though the soft plush berth I was laying on might explain the awesome recharge. It was definitely better than any other berth I had recharged on in who knows how many millenia. As I lay there with my systems onlining, I glanced around the room.<p>

My brothers were not anywhere in sight and this realization caused me to tense and shoot up from my resting position as I hesitantly opened the bond so to inquire as to where they had gone. While I waited for an acknowledgement, I hopped off the berth and stretched my tense back struts until I heard a satisfying crack.

The shine of a datapad caught my attention from where it was laying on the low table in front of the couch. Approaching it, I leant down and picked it up so that I could read it's contents.

_'Night, Sunny and I had to go and run patrol this morning. We should be back sometime after midcycle! Feel free to use anything in our quarters! Love, your awesome brothers!'_

I snorted and sat the datapad down on the table again. So that explained why they were not answering me. Sitting down on the couch, the silence of the room washed over me. There was a video game system in front of me but I didn't really have much experience with gaming systems so I left it alone. Watching tv usually bored me since nothing was ever on... well nothing used to be on before the Autobots came back. Still, I wasn't that interested in turning it on so I left it. The brief thought of using the washracks passed through my processor, but I was still clean from last night so I dismissed that as well.

So I just sat there for at least a groon doing nothing but staring at the lifeless screen across from me. What had I expected when I agreed to stay here? For my brothers to always be there to keep me from getting bored? They were Autobots with duties that they had to attend to and that would obviously take presedence over spending time with me.

But I should have known that. A sigh escaped me as I slumped down in boredom. I knew nobot on base, I trusted nobot on base, therefore I was not interested in interacting with anybot on base. So what was there to do? Sure I could leave the base and go prancing around New Iacon looking for fun but the idea didn't appeal to me for one main reason. When I had fun things usually either got blown up, excessive amounts of high grade were involved, or some type of not so legal activity was involved. So no my version of fun would only get me in trouble.

Why had I even agreed to stay here? I didn't need to think hard on that to get an answer: because everybot on the outside world was going to be out to get me soon. Yay for me and my moment of temporary insanity! With a groan I let my helm flop back against the couch with a thud, the part of me that was more like Sides coming to the forefront. Boredom did not sit well with me, just as it did not sit well with my red brother, and by this I meant it drove us both crazy to sit there and stew with nothing to do. Hey that kind of rhymed!

"Oh my primus, am I really that bored that I'm sitting here commenting on how what I just said rhymes?" I smacked my forehelm repeatedly upon realizing that I was now talking to myself. How could Sunny just sit there in silence and not go crazy from boredom? HOW?! I was always doing something to distract myself and when I had nothing to do, I just couldn't fragging stand it!

A sudden ping on my comm link nearly made me jump out of my seat in shock. "What the pit?" I muttered before I answered it, half expecting it to be Shot demanding to know where his shipment was.

**:Nightsong here.:**

A voice that I did not expect came back over the comm link. **:'Ey Nightsong! Wha'cha up to?:**

Was that... well of course it was Jazz cause nobot else talked like that. My question was why the frag was he actually comming me?** :Sitting here doing nothing.:** I answered honestly.

**:Ah figured as much! Ya wanna come down to da rec room an' meet some of da more amiable bots?:**

I instantly recoiled from the idea as soon as the words were out of his mouth. **:I don't think so Jazz. They won't like me or want me here and you know it. Honestly, I don't wanna get into a fight within a few cycles of being here.:** And that's what would happen too if one of them tried pushing me around. Then where would I be?

**:Naw, none of 'em will be like dat! Hound an' Blaster asked meh 'bout ya! I told 'em dat ah would ask if ya wanted ta come down an' hang for a bit!:**

Something told me that he was going to insist until I relented and went... but I still did not want to go. **:Maybe later?:**

His exasperation clearly came over the line. **:Ya can' hide in ya room all cycle femme! Ah promise dat if t'ings get bad ah'll take ya back to ya room, okay?:**

I was definitely right. **:How many bots are there?:**

**:Only a few. Most are on shift righ' now! Do ah come an' get'cha now or lata?:**

**:I don't suppose if I lock the door you won't be able to get in?: **I asked dejectedly.

**:Nope! Ah 'ave an override code ta get in! Ah'm a superior officer, li'l femme, remember?:**

How could I forget? I still wasn't happy about this whole mess but... he was going to come and attempt to drag me there, and I didn't really want to fight with a superior officer if it could be helped. **:Alright. I'm ready whenever you are. But I should warn you that if one of them tries picking a fight with me I will respond just as fiercely.:**

**:Don' worry! Nobot's gonna pick a fight wit' ya.:**

**:How do you know that?:**

"Because!"

I looked over towards the door upon hearing his actual voice speaking and not him talking over the comm link. How did... when did he even get in here? And better yet, how did he get in without me noticing? Then again, I was not really paying attention to my surroundings at all. "Because why?"

"Because ah tol' em not ta pick fights wit' ya! Mos' won' even care enough ta try it, dey jus' wanna meet da only unbonded femme on base." He winked an optic at me and held a servo out in a come here gesture.

I got up from the couch and approached him with a frown deeply etched across my lips. "If they're getting all excited about that then they're going to be disappointed. I don't plan on sparkbonding in my lifetime."

A strange look passed through his optics as we turned and left the room. "Why no'? Everybot feels da need ta join deir sparks wit' another spark so ya can' tell me dat yo' don' feel dat need too."

That was true, everybot felt the need to bond to another in their lifetime... But I just didn't want the hassle of trying to find said mech, and then we would have to become comfortable with each other in order to bond, and then we would have to share memories over a sparkbond... and ugh! Too much hassle! I did not want to share my memories with anybot, I did not trust anybot but my brothers! So how could I even reach that point where I could bond?

"That's true, but it's also a preference and I just don't trust anybot enough to do that." I told him quietly while we walked towards the rec room. It made me feel odd to even be telling him this, and I briefly wondered why I was even talking so openly with him. I didn't even speak to bots that I had known for millenia with such familiarity, the only exceptions being my brothers.

_'You are at ease with him.'_

I shook my helm to dispel that thought... I was never at ease with anybot besides my brothers. Maybe Jazz didn't make me feel threatened, but I surely did not trust him or feel at ease with him. Even contemplating it was a completely foreign concept to me. So I just did not think about it. It was easy to just push it all away when the rec room came into sight, voices of several bots carrying over to us from inside.

Reflexively my door wings perked up to assess the strength and size of the mechs, checking EM fields and mass. A few of them seemed rather big, easily dwarfing me and Jazz, while the rest seemed relatively small. I frowned and slid to a stop beside Jazz as he opened the door.

As soon as it slid open all optics were on me... making me shudder and feel enclosed in a small space. I twitched despite my best efforts to keep the movement in as a large red mech with sky blue optics walked over towards us wearing a wide grin. He was one of the biggest ones in the room and it unnerved me, though I did not let it show.

He came to a stop before us and knelt down slightly to offer a servo for me to shake. "Hello femme! Mah designation is Blaster! Ah'm the head communications officer for the Autobots!"

For a moment I just stared at his servo before hesitantly taking it in a brief greeting before I let it drop. It took me a klik to realize that he was waiting for me to introduce myself as well, at least he seemed amused by me. "Nightsong. I'm Nightsong, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are my older brothers."

His optics lit up. "Really? 'Ey Hide! Did ya hear that? T'is femme is Sideswipe an' Sunstreaker's li'l sister!"

The helm of the large black mech from yesterday shot in my direction with intense scrutinizing optics. "You're that femme that they were showing around. Primus, not another one." He growled.

Another mech with flames painted on him came to stand beside Blaster. "I'm Hot Rod!" In a flash Hot Rod has reached out and grabbed my small servo in his so that he could bring it to his lips.

I quickly yanked my servo back and glared at him. "What are you doing?"

He didn't seem concerned that I had yanked myself back away from him because the smug look on his face did not even falter in the least. "Trying to make sure that you get to know the best unbonded mech on base of course!"

The look on his face was really making me want to gag! All confident and arrogant! Sunny was enough arrogant egotistical afthole for one femme to deal with, so I was definitely not impressed. "Well the unbonded part of that statement was irrelevant because I have no interest whatsoever in you! Dealing with one arrogant afthole is enough and Sunny definitely outdoes you in that department though he is better looking than you so I guess it isn't really arrogance." I prattled on, earning myself amused looks from most of the bots, and a scowl from Hot Rod.

Hot Rod took an angry step towards me. "Why you-"

Blaster growled and hastily shoved him back away from me. "Back off Hot Rod! The femme ain't interested an' dat's dat! Go talk ta some of ya buddies over there or somethin'!"

With a scowl in my direction Hot Rod left to walk over to a table in the opposite corner of the room with several other mechs sitting around.

"What an aft." I noticed Jazz giving me an amused look from the corner of my optics. "What's so funny about that?" I turned towards him fully.

"Nothin'! Ah jus' have never seen Hot Rod get turned down like dat! It was hilarious! Don'cha t'ink so Blaster?"

"Ah do thin' it was pretty funny Jazz. Li'l Nightsong is gonna fit in jus' fine 'round here."

I gave a confused tilt of my helm as I mulled the ramifications of what they had just said over. They thought that it was funny when one of their comrades was pretty much ridiculed and made fun of? I thought what I had said to Hot Rod was amusing though I had just said it to be honest as was in my nature. What I was not expecting was for anybot else to find amusement from it.

In a dry voice I responded. "So if I treat that particular mech like slag, then it's cool?"

"Well, Rod 'as a tendency ta be annoyin'." Jazz shrugged his shoulders at me. "Ah wouldn' say dat it's a good idea ta be rude ta everybot on base femme, but somebots jus' don' learn unless femmes are blunt wit' em."

So it was like everywhere else on Cybertron? Good to know that I should avoid mechs around base as often as possible so that they did not feel the need to stake claims on me; claims that I would deny and shoot down instantly. "Well they will soon realize that I don't tolerate that behavior." I made sure that my voice was loud enough to be heard by everybot in the room, lifting an optic ridge at Hot Rod when he shot me a look.

"Well, ah 'ave ta go an' run the communications deck for a while, Jazz." Blaster started sky blue optics swinging in my direction. "Maybe next time you, me, an' Jazz can jam out, Nightsong. Let me know, ok?"

"Sure." I responded quietly even though I had no intentions of doing that. Shifting to the side I let the large red mech walk out preceeding an uncomfortable silence falling over the room. Every mech besides the large black mech was staring at me exclusively.

Ironhide seemed to grow increasingly agitated by the blatant staring for reasons that I didn't understand. But finally after a few kliks he lost it and snapped at the other mechs. "Stop staring at the femme already! Pit, you lot act like you've never seen a femme bot before!"

The other mechs jumped upon hearing the loud voice before scrambling to at least make it look like they weren't staring at me. Hide or whatever his designation was gave them a satisfied look before he stood up and stalked towards Jazz and I.

"Dat's Ironhide da Weapons Specialist, you met him an' 'is sparkmate, Chromia, who is also a weapons specialist, yesterday." Jazz informed me as the large black beheamoth approached. "Jus' don' anger 'im if ya can help it."

Yeah, I had filed away that piece of survival information as soon as my optics had landed on him... or after I had sensed all of the weapons attached to his frame. Yeah, that was probably it. Part of being a mercenary was sizing up your target in order to find the best way to take them down with the least damage done to you, a skill that I had perfected as a means of surviving.

"I didn't properly introduce myself yesterday, I'm Ironhide, the weapons specialist."

My helm snapped up in time to see the large black mech towering over me. "Nightsong... and Jazz here told me already. He also said not to slag you off."

A dangerous smirk crept onto the aged silver face plates of Ironhide. "Well your brothers will tell you that as well if you ask them. But I didn't come over here to point out all the things that you should watch out for when dealing with me, I came to ask how much experience you have with weapons."

From the corner of my optics I saw Jazz rolling his own optics and mouthing, _'good ole Hide'_ or something to the effect. "Well, I mostly use melee weapons like swords and the like, but I do have a high impact sniper rifle built into my right arm as well as an SMG built into the left. I don't really use them since I prefer stealth, but they are there in case I need them." Along with a wide variety of weapons that I was not just going to tell him about. My entire frame had a multitude of failsafe weapons built in as well as shoulder cannons, wrist cannons, and ion cannons in both arms on top of what I had told him.

"How are you at shooting?"

"Good enough not to get killed in a gunfight." I shifted my stance so that I was leaning away from him and slightly towards the door. Mechs this size intimidated me no matter how many times I was forced to fight them, it was a part of me that had never died. Ironhide was a brute and he was right in my space, and I did not feel at all comfortable with it. Kinda weird when I thought about the fact that Ironhide indimidated me more than the Prime had, then again Optimus Prime was known by some as a gentle giant. Ironhide seemed the exact opposite.

"If you ever want some lessons, come on down to the firing range, Chromia and I wouldn't mind another student."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Good. Well I gotta go." With that the brute walked by me without another word.

As soon as he was gone I released the breath that I didn't realize I was holding in. I hated it when that happened to me.

"Ya ok, Night?" Jazz gave me a worried look.

"Yeah." I forced myself to shake my nervousness off before it made me look like a fool. "So what's next? Or are we going to stand here all cycle?" With mechs staring at me openly again now that Ironhide was gone, Hot Rod especially.

"We can get some energon an' den go back ta mah room to jam ou' if ya wan' ta." He offered.

"Jam out?" I echoed curiously.

His optics brightened substantially. "Yeah jam ou'! We can listen ta all kinds of music if ya wanna!"

Oh right he had offered to do that yestercycle. I was honestly hoping that he would forget so that I would not have to spend time alone with him, but the thought of going back to my brothers room all alone until they returned was not very inviting either. My optics drifted towards him to see him still watching me intently apparently, waiting for an answer of some kind. It was just music right? "Fine."

"Good! Le's get some energon an' head back ta mah room!"

He suddenly pranced, yes pranced across the room towards the energon dispenser to fill two cubes for us. My optics followed his movements while I stood there unsure of what to make of his demeanor at this moment. He was just impossible to figure out no matter how hard I looked at him.

He appeared back at my side and ushered me out quickly, not touching me even though he had subspaced the cubes of energon already. Maybe he realized that physical contact was not something that I was particularly used to? Or maybe he understood that I was not used to positive physical contact outside of dealing with my brothers.

Whatever the case, he walked along beside me chattering about certain places as we passed, most of what he had to say was about my brothers and their pranks. He seened to find enjoyment out of watching what they did to other bots.

It made me remember when we had been brought to the Youth Sectors, well when I had been brought there as an adolscent. My brothers would always pull pranks to cheer me up when I got upset about the war or our creators. Now that I thought about, it they probably did it to distract themselves just as much.

The memories clouded my processor drowning out anything else around me until a gentle touch on my left shoulder plate snapped me out of it. When I looked up, I realized that we were in front of the door to Jazz's living quarters and that he was standing right in front of me.

"Ya ok?"

"Yeah." Taking a deep vent I schooled my features into my normal mask.

For a moment he just stared at me as if unsure that I was being truthful. Shaking his helm, he turned and keyed the code to get into his room. "C'mon den."

Stepping inside I tilted my helm curiously as I took in the large living area. There was a couch and a table sitting across from a large T.V. just like in my brothers room, a large black device of some kind sat in the corner with multiple stacks of these circle discs. The main difference between his living quarters and my brothers was that Jazz had a berthroom that was separated from the living quarter. At least I was assuming, since I did not see any berths while I did see two doors at opposite ends of the room from one another.

Jazz sat the energon cubes on the table in front of the couch before gesturing towards said couch. "Take a seat on da couch while ah get some music goin'." With that, he walked over to the large device that I had noticed from before and started fiddlig with it.

While he was doing that, I sat down on the far end of the couch and sipped at my energon. I was pretty sure that I had never been in a mechs room like this when interface was not expected... so I was feeling a little out of place. How do I react to situations unlike anything else I had been through before?

A sudden weight on the couch beside me startled me but not as much as the sound that started emanating from the black device an astrosecond later. I tilted my helm and allowed the notes to flood my processor. It seemed to be an instrumental of some kind since there were no words and it was a gentle melody. I had not expected a composition like this from this mech. "What's it called?"

"Ah think i's called Thao Nguyen Xahn. I's an instrumental dat soothes meh when ah'm troubled or bo'hered by somet'in'. Ah thought ya migh' like it."

"You listen to this type of music?" I couldn't help but to ask before I could stop myself. My mouth snapped shut immediately following the question and I looked off to the side in frustration. What was I doing? Here I was sitting alone with a mech I barely knew in his room... asking questions about his likes and dislikes? Ugh! Something must have been rattled in my processor when I hit the ground after being shot by that mech.

"Ah listen ta every'hing! Dere's a different kinda music ta fit every mood, ya know? Ah love all different kinds of Earth compositions."

"What was Earth like?" I asked quietly. Was it a lot different than Cybertron? Was there life there? Was it colorful and thriving unlike the world I had grown up in?

Jazz seemed to think about it for several moments while he started at me. "Well it was... a lo' different den Cybertron. It was an organic planet so dere was dese t'ings called plants all over da place in all different colors. Some'imes ah could sit on cliffs an' look out at da blue oceans dat spread out across da entire planet. Ah'd sit dere an' watch da sun rise an' it woul' cast the most beautiful hues of color across the surface of da ocean an' da clouds. Some'imes da clouds woul' turn red an' o'her times dey woul' turn pink or purple. Earth really is a beau'iful place."

It sounded nice. "Why did you all come back here then? Primus knows that there's nothing like that here anymore."

"It's home." Jazz shrugged. "Sure ah like Earth bu' it ain' Cybertron... dat an' da humans wanted us off planet. So we 'ad ta go."

The sadness and longing was easily discernible in his voice. "So it became home and then they kicked you all off." I surmised. For some reason that thought saddened me a bit. It must hurt to lose one home, the find another only to lose it again.

"Yeah, ah guess. Bu' at da same time, ah'm happy ta be back 'ere. Cybertron is home no matta where ah go, some part of meh will always wanna come back 'ere."

Now that, I could not understand. What was there that was worth coming back to? A planet in ruins? Wild and feral citizens running about slaughtering everybot they came into contact with? Ruined cities? No place to really call home? Well, now they had rebuilt most of the cities, but when they had returned, very little had remained.

He must have seen what I was thinking on my face for he turned to me with an unreadable expression on his face. "Ya don' t'ink dat it's home?"

"No, I don't." I answered honestly. "What is there to love about this place? Look around you, there's nothing but death and decay everywhere! Everybot's only out to get what they want no matter what it takes. It doesn't matter if they have to frag for their energon or kill for it! There are no standards or extremes that are too high for most bots if the rewards is good enough. So can you honestly call this planet home?"

For almost an entire breem we just stared each other down silently, hardly even venting. I couldn't understand the look in his optics, nor did I really try to either... in fact, I wished that he would just pull that visor down over them so that I didn't have to look into them. They were so intense that I felt like I was burning and I couldn't look away on my own.

"Home doesn't always have to be good femme." He started without his accent. "It's where you're born and grow up even if it ain't all good. And besides, it doesn't always have to be about the place, it can be about the family waiting there for you. The twins are here with you, so that makes this home."

Home. As far as I can remember I had never had a real home. I just went wherever my brothers went... so I guess, in a way, what Jazz said was true. Still, that just meant that wherever my brothers went was home even if it wasn't Cybertron. "That doesn't mean that Cybertron is home Jazz, it just means that wherever my brothers are is home."

"Well what about your creators? Didn't you live with them here?" He persisted.

My spark ached at the memories of my creators and their smiling faces. "Yes, I did. But I barely even remember them because they died when I was so little."

"Don' matta. Home is where all ya good memories are, femme. Don't matta if there aren' many good ones, as long as dere are some." His accent popped up again as he gave me a comforting smile. "No' everyt'in' is gonna be good in life Night, but as long as ya can use da pain for somet'in' constructive everyt'in' will be ok."

I just looked away as my spark pulsed painfully not wanting to think about it. If bots like him knew about the things bots like me had done... well they would not think things like that. Sure, I did not kill innocents, but I did frag for credits when times were hard, and I was involved with less than legal things. Well, I used to be. Something told me that things were going to change now that I was with my brothers again.

Thankfully he dropped the subject from that point on. For the remainder of my time with him we listened to all different kinds of music while he named bands and individual songs for me. So far we had listened to Evanescence which was another surprising choice for a mech to listen to, Pink Floyd, Alice in Chains, Lil Wayne, and some guy called Tupac. Apparently this Tupac was dead but his music was still some kind of legend... now this music kinda did not surprise me.

It was the sheer amount and varying genres that surprised me the most. He literally had every kind of music on a CD of some kind and he explained them all to me. There was various kinds of rock like Metal, there was R&B and rap, country, alternative, etc... I could barely keep track in one sitting.

But, by the end of the whole session, I was thoroughly interested in these Earth compositions! I had never heard anything like them before!

I got so into it that a sudden tugging on my spark startled me. Throwing open the bond, I sensed impatience coming from my brothers. **[Hey.]**

**[Where are you? We've been looking for you for almost an entire joor!]** Sunny's voice hit me like a ton of scrap metal. Oooh he was slagged off.

**[Uhhh, with Jazz in his room listening to these Earth compositions.]**

**[In his room?]**

**[Come on Sunny they're just listening to music.]** Sides tried to placate our more unstable brother.

**[Alone in his room?]** Sunny repeated slightly louder this time.

**[Yes, in his room.]**

The bond went deadly silent after that... I turned to Jazz and frowned at him. "Well, I think that my brother is coming to get me since apparently me being alone in your room with you disturbs him."

He grinned at me. "Ah can see why 'e woul' t'ink dat! Look at meh!"

When he dramatically gestured to himself I couldn't help but to laugh softly. "You keep on thinking that you're that hot, Jazz. I'll let you." I stopped short upon realizing that I was laughing and joking with him... What?!

Before I could think on it too hard, we both heard banging on the door. I got up mutely and waved once at the silver mech before walking towards the door that was currently in danger of being decimated.

As I walked out and pushed Sunny's heaving form back away from said door, I couldn't stop thinking about how Jazz had put me at ease so... easily.

What was I even thinking letting my guard fall around anybot even him?!

I gave my helm a hard shake to clear the thoughts, just noticing that Sides was there frowning at Sunny who was still glaring at the door. With a snort I walked past them towards the room...

I desperately needed to recharge and get my helm on straight.

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><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


	8. Chapter 8

So here's chapter eight! I don't know how long I want this story to be yet and I'm trying to pace the romance part to make it realistic, but with Sides and Sunny acting as Night's protectors that should be easy enough lol. Anyways I do not own TRANSFORMERS!

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><p>I blinked as I watched Sides get killed for the thousandth time on the game he was playing, in effect causing him to fly into a rage for roughly the dozenth time since he started. He stomped around the couch with his arms thrown in the air throwing a coniption fit about Jazz using an aim bot or something on the shooting game they were playing. I rolled my optics at him and turned to Sunny. "He does know that Jazz is a bot right?"<p>

Sunny just shrugged. "When he loses he has to come up with some sort of reason for it happening." He explained with a slightly irritated look with optics trained on our idiot brother.

Rolling my optics I reached down and grabbed his discarded controller in my servos and pressed play on the game even though I had never played it and had no idea what I was doing. I steered my on screen avatar around experimentally for a moment to get used to the movements and the controls, testing the weapons he had for good measure.

Sides came back over and plopped down beside me wearing a pout. "Jazz is such a cheating slagger!" His optics were closely watching what I was doing as I walked around the screen doing Primus knew what.

But I honestly had no fragging clue what to do short of finding Jazz and killing him. This was not how I could ever remember spending time with my brothers... Just sitting here safe and without the threat of being killed or maimed somehow...playing some sort of game together. What had my world come to?

Some sort of notification popped up on the bottom of the screen before Jazz's voice came through the speakers. "Ey who's playin'? Usually ah've found Sides and we've killed each otha by now!"

"Ummm he started raging so I took the controller from him..." I stated quietly as I closely stared at a part of the screen where I had seen movement. Quickly I dropped down and pulled my scope up waiting for the perfect shot to arise...

As soon as I saw Jazz's character go running across the screen I took aim and... BAM! Helmshot! Jazz's avatar dropped like a pile of scrap resulting in him giving out an indignant cry that sounded like aim bot.

I snorted. "I do not use aim bots idiot...I AM A BOT!" I deadpanned as I reloaded my gun and took off running away from the place I had been. On the way I walked past an assault rifle so I switched my secondary blaster out for it just in case it came to close quarters.

"How did you kill him?" Sides spluttered dumbly. "I haven't even been able to find him at all today! It's always backstab, Jazz wins!" My brother looked at me with wide curious looking optics.

"Ummm I pay attention to small details unlike you Sides." I joked quietly while I played. This was actually kind of fun! More fun than I had had in a very long time! I found myself really getting into it after taking Jazz down for that first time!

"Ya ain't gonna get meh 'gain femme!" He challenged me.

"Yeah sure we'll see about that." I returned the challenge. At that moment his avatar went running across the screen between two alleyways so he could try and get around behind me. With a grin I pulled out my sniper rifle and lined up the shot exactly as I had done only kliks prior.

BAM! Helmshot again!

"Wha' ta frag?! How can ya see mah super awesome spybot skills?!" Jazz protested with a fake sonding whine.

Beside me Sunny snorted while I just shook my helm and deemed to answer him. "For several reasons Jazz, those reasons being that the movements that you have perfected yourself cannot be transferred to a video game avatar. Another reason is that they can only move a certain way and they cannot climb to get around more stealthily so you have to run across open ground at times. And I have very keen optics therefore I'll always catch you or I will most of the time if you have any sort of skill whatsoever."

Sides laughed at the indignant shout that Jazz gave at the slandering of his apparent video game skills. "Nice one Night." He side hugged me like he used to do a lot when I was a sparkling.

It made my spark ache again... Why could I never escape the pain of the past no matter what I did? Why? Was it because I was still torn up inside over being here? Was that why I could not accept the attempts at affection that they were trying so hard to give? So I brushed them off along with the conflicting emotions they sent shooting through me... I couldn't concentrate on it...they wouldn't understand.

A soft poke on my other shoulder drew my attention to the more observant of my two brothers, Sunny staring at me with worry clear in his optics. Had he felt what I had been feeling in my spark? "Are you ok Night? Do you want to talk about what's bothering you?"

I shook my helm no. I did not want to talk about anything, not about what had happened in the past or what I was feeling. Emotions and torn thoughts that I really didn't understand at this point... I knew that I still felt betrayed and abandoned because of the fact that I was left behind by them but...I also knew that they thought I was dead. Had they known different they would have dug me out with their bare servos. But they hadn't known and I had been left behind... And I just really didn't want to think about this right now!

Strong arms lifted me up onto a familiar lap before I could react. The familiar gold paint smelled of expensive wax and cleaner unlike the smell of energon and crease that was familiar to me. I subconsciously curled into him until I was little more than a tiny ball huddled against his abdominal plating with his arms wrapped around me keeping me safe.

Part of me wanted to just lay here and pretend that I had never been separated from them, that they had always been there to protect me so that I didn't have to do the things that I did to survive. Another part of me wanted to push my way free and snap at them to tell them that I didn't need their babying behavior. I was no sparkling! My sparklinghood had been taken from me... But I didn't do that, instead I just laid there just like I used to do when I was small enough to fit in both of their servos. Strangely enough the feelings of safety that I had not felt in so long came creeping back into me.

Another familiar touch started up on my doorwings making my vision dim slightly. I remember this, sitting here just like this huddled against one while the other massaged my doorwings to lull me into a fitfull recharge. Every night they would have to do this or else I would have horrible vid files that would make me come screaming out of recharge.

But that was back when I still recharged in their sparkling holds... I was grown now. I wasn't a sparkling anymore. After another klik or two I gently extracted myself from their hold and leapt down from the couch before starting for the door.

"Where are you going?" Sunny asked.

"Out for a walk." I responded as I walked out and shut the door behind me. As soon as it closed I turned and started in a random direction with no real destination planned out. How could I have one in mind when I barely knew this place? The rec room was out for sure and the only other place that was an option really was Jazz's room but... I didn't really want to go there seeing as how I was trying to keep to myself.

Unfortunately for me the mech that I was trying to avoid must have heard everything over the game comm link because he came around another corner ahead of me and stopped to wait for me. I slowed my pace reflexively unsure of what he was doing there... I shook it off and kept walking until I passed him forcing him to sidle up alongside me.

"Some'hin wrong Night?" He asked me while we walked to Primus knows where.

"No." I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't even know what to say.

We walked in silence from that point on though it was uncomfortable at first for me due to the fact that I had limited experience with other bots that did not result in agony or possible death. But I eventually grew more relaxed with his presence, not at ease but somewhat relaxed.

It didn't escape my notice that we were walking aimlessly, or more like I was and he was just following me quietly. My optics stayed trained on my peds as we walked locked on each individual shine reflecting off of my dark paint. It felt better than looking up at the other bots that were passing by, at least this way I didn't end up feeling caged in.

"C'mon Night, we can go hang ou'side if ya wanna."

Nodding mutely I allowed him to lead me out the doors of the base into the outside world. There still wasn't much to see in my opinion from where we plopped down on the massive stairs just beyond the doors. My spark started aching dully while we sat there staring into open space my thoughts drifting back to my brothers and the past. If only I had something to do to take my processor off of things it would help. But it wasn't like I could go out and look for a contract or anything now that my designation had probably been slandered all along the illegal network. Death was all that I would find there.

"Ya wanna talk 'bout it?" The mech beside me questioned again. "Ah'm a good listener Night an' ah won' tell a soul any'hing ya say."

When those visor covered baby blue optics drifted over to rest on me again I looked away. "Why do you wear that visor then forgo it other times?" I asked instead of answering him.

A single optic ridge was raised over the top of said visor. "Well ah like ta keep bots 'round meh guessin' wha' ah'm thinkin. If dey can' see mah optics it's harder ta tell what ah'm thinkin righ'?"

"Unless you're really good at reading other facial features and body language yes." He certainly was good at keeping me guessing but that could be because I didn't know him all that well.

"Hmm yea ah guess so, but dat doesn' 'ave any'hing ta do wit wha' ah said Night." He prompted me patiently.

My lips turned down into a frown. "You said that I could talk if I wanted to. Not that you were going to make me." I pulled my knees up to my chassis and wrapped my arms around them so that I could lay my helm comfortably on them. This way I was facing him as he was facing me. "So is this your way of demanding that I talk? Or is it optional still?"

"Optional."

"Could've fooled me." I deadpanned quietly. Why was I sitting here talking to him like this? When had I ever sat down and talked to a bot that I hardly knew like this when it wasn't about business? Talking just to talk. Never. The last time I had was with my brothers before the youth sectors were bombed and that was ages ago. It was also a thought and memory that I did not want to revisit...of a time when I wasn't this used up femme that I was now. Back when I still believed in hope.

My emotions must have showed on my face or he was very adept at reading others, because he frowned at me slightly and scooted a little bit closer to me. "Ya know...da twins were jus' like yo' when dey came 'ere. Dey neva spoke ta anybot no matta wat. Dey're betta now but ah t'ink dat in some way yo'r absense will always affect 'em. Now ah know dat dey jus' missed ya all dis time."

I snorted. "Yeah sure. They had each other so they didn't need me." Both of them had survived just fine without me to weigh them down and hold them back. They were just how I remembered them to be fun loving in Sides' case, and aloof and cold in Sunny's case.

"Femme haven't you seen the way they act around you?" Jazz gave me a small half grin. "I have never seen those two look as happy and ecstatic as they have since you came back! Not even when they scored a hot femme to drag back to their berth at night! And if you know the twins then you know that just about the only thing that does excite them both is the prospect of interfacing, so for them to be acting happier about you being back solidifies everything in my mind."

I scrunched up my nose plates in disgust at the mental images of my brothers doing that to any femme. "Eww I did not need to hear or process those disgusting mental images thank you very much." As an afterthought I opened my mouth and added, "and they better not even think about doing that now that I'm staying in that room. If they want that then they're gonna have to take it to her room."

Jazz grinned fully and laughed lightly at me. "Oh ah t'ink dey know dat femme! Ah don' t'ink dat dey'll give ya any reason ta move outta deir room if dey can 'elp it."

A soft whisper of a laugh escaped me before I even realized it. I was more than surprised to hear such a sound from myself again. What had gotten into me lately? I looked away from Jazz's grinning face focusing on the tops of the buildings in New Iacon instead. My behavior as of late had been bothering me. It was like as soon as I came back into contact with my brothers every lesson I had learned was suddenly called into question and it wasn't just because of them either! This mech beside me lulled me out of my defenses in a way that nobot else besides my brothers ever had. Some part of me was still wary of him but I didn't mind talking to him.

When was the last time that had happened? Never.

No I couldn't do this. This was against everything that I had ever learned in my life.

"Where ya goin?" Jazz asked me when I stood and turned to head back into the building.

"Back inside. Alone." I stressed the word as my peds carried me away from him. The clacking sound of my heels tapping against the floor echoed against the walls as I walked inside and made my way towards my brothers room. Away from him.

'What the slag is wrong with me? What am I even thinking? Everybot can and will turn on you and here I am making small talk with an enforcer? What the slag?!' I berated myself with each step that I took. It was tearing me up inside making some part of me rear up defensively, yet I never acted on that instinct. Instead I allowed some other instinct that I was unfamiliar with to guide me and dictate my actions.

Looking up I almost ran smack into an unfamiliar black mech. His purple optics pierced through me making me tense shifting over his shoulder catching my attention. Three more mechs stood behind him in loose yet battle ready stances. I growled and readied my weapons systems to defend myself. 'I knew this would happen!'

"I heard that a new femme was brought in a few cycles ago." The black mech commented with a dark and dangerous grin. "I wasn't expecting you to be so small and pretty though."

Grins were exchanged between the other three mechs behind the one speaking to me as they moved to simultaneously flank him and box me in at the same time. "She is pretty Raider...maybe we could have some fun with her?" An orange mech leered at me.

"I'd be careful about where we do this though." Another mech, a purple one said this time. "I heard she was the Terror twins little sister. Don't know about you bots but I don't wanna piss those two off."

"So we kill her after we're done." The last mech, a gray one this time, guessed.

"Or we keep her." Raider grinned roguishly. He stepped towards me and held a servo out to touch my face plates.

In a flash I swiped my claws out and tore through the thin armor on his servo in warning. "Back off you pieces of scrap metal before I do something I won't regret." I threatened in a dark tone. They were making me feel threatened and that was not something that I dealt well with, this probably stemming from several millenia in the pits as a youngling. I had survived that so this would be as easy as taking energon goodies from a sparkling.

If possible my defiance only made the lead mech look more excited. "I always liked a femme that put up a good fight, it makes it more satisfying when I break them." He circled around me effectively caging me in between all of them.

Why wasn't anybot coming to break this up anyways? One look at the security camera gave me the answer I needed...the power had been disrupted to this strain of camera feed. I cursed internally as they started moving in on me predatorily the intent to do harm triggering my more animalistic side. With a loud 'shing' my wrist blades came shooting out their curved forms gleaming wickedly from the lights in the hallway. I growled and fell into a crouch with them held out in front of me defensively...waiting for one of them to make a move.

It happened in the blink of an optic, I felt Raider lunge for me from behind at the same time that the orange mech lunged at me from the front. Ducking down I easily dodged the attack by feinting right then I follwed up by slamming my heeled ped into the orange mech's knee joint damaging the vulnerable joint there.

He released a loud howl of pain and tripped over his now bum leg and right into the big black glitch. Both of them fell in a jumble of limbs with Raider vigorously pushing orangey to get him off. It wasn't getting him very far.

I didn't have time to let myself really find amusement in the situation when the purple mech appeared at my side with a blade poised to strike me down. Bringing up my wrist blades I blocked with a cross block catching his sword between both of mine easily. He tried to overpower me by pushing against my block but I was not stupid enough to think that I could hold him back forever, so twisting I threw his blade off and rammed my left wrist blade into his wrist while he was off balance. Renching I ripped straight through the thick armor lopping his servo off and effectively disarming him.

He too jerked back howling at the top of his vocal processor as his energon spewed from the wound.

Once I was satisfied that he was going to sit there crying about his missing servo I turned back to Raider who had now recovered, and the gray mech who looked almost scared of approaching me. I grinned ferally at him raising my energon covered blade...and licking the energon from it.

He whimpered like a coward armor rattling against his protoform.

I didn't think he was any sort of threat so I dismissed him in favor of giving the one who had started this my full attention. He looked beyond slagged off at me like that was supposed to intimidate me or something but I didn't care. He had challenged me and my Gladiator programming would not let me back down from a challenge.

A sudden shout from Primus knew where had my helm struggling to clear itself of the haze infesting it. I recognized the voices yelling at me!

"Night!" A pair of figures was suddenly in front of me, one red and one gold. The gold one shoved at the big black glitch to get him to move away from me, while the red form was trying to talk me down.

It took me several kliks to focus enough on them to put the faces of my brothers with them, and when I did I backed down. Not that it was easy for me to do when these mechs had attacked me after presuming me to be weak, but I managed to force myself.

"You alright Night? What happened here?" Sides gently edged me back away with Sunny back tracking after us. "We felt the bond go haywire a few moments ago so we came to find you!"

"Ey! Wha's goin on 'ere?! Ah heard a commotion!"

We all turned in time to see Jazz jogging over towards us optics covered by his visor but I could tell that he was staring at the downed mechs from the frown on his lips. I sighed and resigned myself to the fact that I had just gotten into a fight with a couple Autobots in an Autobot base...and now I was going to be in for it. What the slag had I been thinking?

Before I could explain what had happened the glitch started dpewing nonsense just as the Prime and his SIC came around the corner with the mech that I had met the other day designated Ironhide. "This glitch drew her weapons in the hall and we told her that it was against protocols and she attacked us out of nowhere!"

Jazz, Sides, Sunny, and the other high ranking mechs looked in my direction as if waiting for me to explain myself or something. "What? I get a chance to actually argue what he said?" I said sarcastically.

"Is what he said true?" Prime asked me.

"Does it matter? You wouldn't believe me even if I said something different." I snarked angrily. I hated liars more than anything but I also knew that I was an outsider here and nobot ever believed an outsider. So what was the point of arguing when none of them would believe me except for maybe my brothers?

"Ah woul' if ah t'ought ya were telling da truth." Jazz's voice drew all of our attention to him. "Ah kno' ya ain' a lyin sort Night, if any'hing ya seem ta be brutally honest. So if ya say dat ya didn' attack dem outta nowhere ah believe ya."

I stared into those visor covered optics intensely as if by just looking at him I could tell if he was lying or not. I didn't think he was and I had always been a good judge of character, kinda had to be when you grew up the way I did. "I didn't start it. They did."

Raider glared at me. "She's the one that clawed me! She attacked first!"

"Because you were trying to put your filthy servos on me! Maybe somebot should teach you to keep your paws to yourself!" I snarled at him. "And how would I disable the security cameras when I'm not linked to the system? I wouldn't have had time either because I was just with Jazz a breem ago maybe a few kliks more! I left him to go back to my brothers room so there's no way that I had enough time to do that!"

All optics turned back to Raider and his lackeys after that remark. "That would certainly validate her story if Jazz was really with her." The black and white praxian stated quietly. "Jazz?" He looked at the smaller silver mech expectantly. "Was she really with you?"

Jazz nodded. "She sure was! Ah was actually jus' comin' ta find 'er ta ask 'er some'hin when ah foun' dis mess 'ere."

"And do you believe that she had enough time to disable the security camers before this confrontation?"

"No ah don' t'ink so."

The SIC gave a derisive nod. "Ironhide take these four down to the brig after Ratchet tends to any threatening wounds."

"WHAT?!" Raider sputtered. It was cut off when Ironhide's large servo clamped down on his shoulder. The smaller black glitch looked up at the WS almost fearfully and any retort he was going for seemed to die on his lips.

"Come on punk it's brig time for you. Then after you get out you can count on intensive training as punishment. The rest of you get your sorry afts up and let's go!" He barked in a booming voice.

Slowly the other mechs got up and ambled over while glaring at me. I ignored them completely, too shocked to believe that Autobots had sided with a Neutral against other Autobots. The frag?

A servo waving in front of my face made me snap to attention. "Night? Are you ok?" Sides asked me.

I snorted at him. "Did you really think that those pansies would be able to take me? Please Sides! I wouldn't be here if I was a wimpy weakling."

"True." He grinned at me and patted my helm.

"What the slag was that about though? What exactly were they trying to do?" Sunny asked me sternly. Which meant that if I didn't tell him he was going to blow a gasket.

Jazz came up on my other side. "Yea ah'd like ta know dat too."

"What does a mech that attacks a femme normally want Jazz?" I shrugged carelessly at the end of my rhetorical question. "I guess because I'm a neutral they thought they could get away with it." The loud roaring of several engines startled me making me almost jump. I looked at my brothers not at all surprised that what I had said had bothered them but when I looked towards Jazz upon realizing that the sound was coming from him as well, and saw his normally cheery demeanor looking downright angry... Well I was surprised to say the least.

Not only were those three looking angry...but when my optics drifted over to the Prime and his SIC they too looked angry as well. Well wasn't this just completely...strange?

"Permission to throw them to Ironhide and Chromia for target practice Prime?" Jazz muttered darkly.

"Permission denied Jazz. We will find another suitable punishment for them after they leave the brig." With that Optimus turned and disappeared the way he came with Prowl following close behind.

For a moment I just stared after them too shocked to move or say anything at all until a gentle nudge on my shoulder broke me out of it. "Yeah Sides?"

"You ready to go back to our room? Or did you want to go and do something else?"

"Something tells me that your room is the safest option right now." I murmured quietly. Shaking my helm I turned to Jazz and caught him staring at me again.

"Ah'll see ya tamorrow Night." He told me before he briskly walked passed me.

It confused me how his demeanor could be so completely cheerful and upbeat one moment and then the next it was so dark and angry. I was forced to forget about it when Sides started tugging me back in the direction of their room.

Something told me that things were going to get weird around here now that I had lost my cool and gotten into a fight with those fake Autobots. I was almost afraid to see how things would change.

Hopefully whatever happened would not damage me anymore than I had already been. Only time would tell.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R!<p> 


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